


Kandro City Shuffle

by Matrix



Category: Original Work
Genre: Anger, Asexual Character, Bisexual Character, Character Death, Electric Powers, Elemental Magic, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Death, Implied/Referenced Sex, Innuendo, Lesbian Character, Minor Character Death, Multi, No Lesbians Die, Pansexual Character, Plant Powers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Drama, Psychological Torture, Psychological Trauma, Science Fantasy, Social Anxiety, Trans Female Character, Wind Powers, present tense narration, psychic powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-02-12 08:36:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12955422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matrix/pseuds/Matrix
Summary: So you got these girls right? And they're going to college. And they fall in love. And everyone's got elemental powers. And there's high technology like holograms and nanomachines. And there's a serial killer on the loose. And they're gonna remind these girls how broken they really are.It's not gonna be dark right away. The story starts off like a nice slice of life thing. But it'll get there.





	1. 05N-03-10031

05N-03-10031. 

So, you know, there's this girl. An electric maja, yellow hair and whatnot - all spiky, and she brushes it to her right. White t-shirt and jeans. She's heading to Kisamora College for her classes for today. She's got her backpack on one shoulder, and her guitar case on the other. Now as she's walking down this pretty sidewalk, all surrounded by plants and shit, near the college, she's thinking,  _ Who should I bring home tonight? _

So, right, that's when she bumps into this guy, a metal maja who's lookin', well. I don't wanna say sharp? Because, c'mon, that's just too obvious. Dapper? Yeah, he's a prettyboy, his gray hair goes to his shoulders, and he's wearing a matching pinstripe suit.

So she's like, "Oh hey, Kalzan! I was just thinking. You up to come to my place later?"

But then he's like, "Ah, sorry, Mel, I've got a date with Fanyas tonight. But for now, I'm heading to class."

So they continue heading onto campus, "Woah, Fanyas? Huh. I thought he was.. nevermind. So you takin' 'im to bed? Eh? Eh??" And she nudges him with her elbow for emphasis.

He closes his eyes and lets out a singular chuckle, and is like, "I'm not as quick with that as you are."

"But what about when we were-"

"You have your, uh, ways of convincing people, I find." Then this dork briefly stares off at nothing and blushes slightly. Bishie-ass motherfucker probably sparkles for a second, I bet.

Mel side-eyes him and smirks, "You're thinking of me naked."

He snaps out of it and just like, babbles.

She laughs and ruffles his hair a bit and gives him a kiss on the cheek and is all like, "Well, we're on campus now, Kal, so ima head off this way," and she points goddamn finger guns to the left, "so see ya."

He blinks a couple times, "Uh, yeah."

So now Mel's walkin' alone again, and you can imagine this like, slots wheel spinning in her mind, and it's just this list of people she knows, cuz she's still really wanting to take someone home tonight. So she pulls that metaphorical lever and it stops on one Ichira Sonakani, mostly because she's in the same Physics class as Mel, which is her first class of the day. And wouldn'tcha know it, Ichira's right around the corner!

So, she's a water maja, which means she's got wavy blue hair, which she wears in a kinda messy bun. She happens to get the first word in, "Oh, hello, Melkash!"

"Heeeeey, Ichira! You, uh, read that chapter?"

"Yes."

"Which one was it again?"

Ichira sighs, "Seven."

"Right! Haha. Guess I better go read that before class, eh? Oh, by the way, wanna come over after classes?"

"Ah, sorry, Melkash, it's my mother's birthday today. We're having a family dinner."

Mel sucks in air like she's been kicked in the shin, "Ah. Alright, uh, you have fun with that. Guess let's, head, to, uh, class." And she's all pointing in the direction of the classroom with both index fingers and moving them back and forth like she's really gotta press some damn buttons for some reason.

So Mel and Ichira are the first students there. It's not one of those big semicircular classrooms like at the big universities, this is just a two-viru college, you see. Just a little cube that could fit like, thirty people. Mel takes a seat on the third row, along the aisle, and Ichira sits in front of her. Mel gets right on cramming Chapter Seven, while Ichira just taps at the holo-screen projected by her phone. Of course, the next person in the damn room is the instructor, a psychic woman with big fluffy pink hair, like goddamn cotton candy, which is this really amazing maja treat you wouldn't know about.

She sees Mel reading the book and is all like, "You really should do that much earlier, Melkash."

Mel jumps in her seat, which sounds like everything in this nearly-empty room has just fallen over, and looks up, "Uh, haha, yeah," and just immediately looks at the book again.

\---

So the Physics lecture happens, which we don't really need to go through, but after it's done, Mel's back to just, trying to figure out who she can get in the sack tonight. Look. She's a woman who knows what she wants, okay? And this time that little slot machine lands on.. Nomori Anzakam. And then Mel slumps. Her best friend in the entire world. Mel could fuck the entire campus and still not be able to tell Nomori how she's just like, completely in love with her. Stupid feelings. Why are they so damn complicated? Like, c'mon, just tell her. Talking's the best way to navigate relationships, right? But, just. She CAN'T.

Y'know?

And just Mel's luck, guess who walks right up to her? I fucking dare you to guess. That's right, it's goddamn Nomori! She's a plant maja, so her hair is green, and she's got. A lot of it. Just, endless flowing tresses, which it's just breaking Mel's heart not to be able to stroke and stuff her face in right now. But I mean, friends can do that, right? There's nothing wrong with that. But, y'know, Mel's being a huge chump about this, so yeah!

Oh, also, Nomori is TALL. I mean like, okay, maja don't use feet and inches and shit, but like, 6'5", and she's in this green sundress, because she practically only ever wears sundresses. Why would she ever want to put on more than one article of clothing? That requires, like, effort. And Nomori is all about the effortless. The calmer and more effortless, the better, is how she thinks. She's come a long way to get calm and effortless, and she ain't giving it up now.

She waves her hand in front of Mel's eyes, since the latter looks like a lightning doe in headlights.

Mel blinks a bit and is all like, "Oh. Hi, Nomori. Uh, I was just. Uh. Thhhhinking. About you. And you showed up! Haha. Funny that. Happened with Ichira earlier, too."

"What, you can see the future now?" Hale, Mel could just MELT into Nomori's smile. Haha. Mel-t. But yeah, she doesn't say any of that. That stays firmly in her mind, even though it really should be coming out of her mouth and maybe into Nomori's.

Ah, dragon food! Now Mel is just stuck daydreaming about making out with Nomori. While she's talking.

"Mel. Tol Maja to Mel! Hello? Am I getting through?" Nomori lightly knocks on Mel's forehead for emphasis.

"Uhhhhhh, uhhhh, oh! Sorry! I got. Distracted. Uh. What were you saying?"

"I was jokingly asking if you got overcharged lately."

"OH! Haha! No. Uh, no, I've gotten overcharged before, and I kind of just. Space out."

"I mean, that's exactly what you were doing.." Nomori laughs a bit. It's like soft bells, to Mel.

_ Mel. You're spacing out again! Stop being weird! _

"Mel.. is something wrong? Are you overcharged!?" Nomori holds Mel's arm.

"Agh. No! I'm fine, really. I just keep getting distracted by my own stupid brain."

"Oh, well why don't you tell me what you're thinking about?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

So this fire chick strides up to Mel, she's got red hair in a ponytail, and some matching hair on her arms, and while she's not as tall as Nomori, she's still taller than Mel. "Hey, Melly! What's this droning about? Your brain spring a leak?"

Mel sputters a bit and faces her, "What do you want, Kozoma."

This Kozoma chick's now got a big ol' shit-eating grin and is all like, "Meeelllll, I hear you've been having trouble picking someone up for tonight! How sad! Whereas I," and she overdramatically places her hand on her chest and tilts her head up to look down her nose at Mel, "had a threesome during my lunch break!"

"Oh, yeah, sure, I'm totally gonna believe that you just fucked some people right on campus or whatever. Fuck off, Kozoma."

"Now, now, Melkash, you see, I decided to deign to grace you with my presence that I might show you pity and take you home tonight!"

"What makes you think I'd wanna fuck you!? I fuckin' hate you! And don't you hate me??"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the hallway, Nomori is just quietly like, "'Deciding to deign'? That's.. redundant."

Then Kozoma pulls Mel in closer by her collar with a single finger, "Hate is a rather strong emotion, is it not? Full of," and she loudly whispers this last word, "passion."

Mel flails wildly and pushes Kozoma away, "The fuck is wrong with you?? I don't wanna be involved in your weird hate sex kink or whatever the fuck this is?? Just fuck off already!"

So then Kozoma just walks over to Nomori and is all like, "Well, if she doesn't wanna, how about you?" And she puts her arm around Nomori's shoulders.

Mel is immediately at them, like, she literally crosses the hall in a tiny fraction of a second. Electrics are FAST. "Wwwwwwhhhat do you think you're doing, Kozoma!?"

She just ignores Mel and is all like, "C'mon, why don't we ditch the cis and have a good time like only girls like us know how?"

Nomori stares off for a second, takes a deep breath, simply moves aside, out from Kozoma's arm, and is just, "No."

"What, afraid you'll get burned? I'm not THAT rough."

Now, this is when Mel lets out a little bit of electricity at Kozoma. Nothing huge, just like, what you'd get from static.

Kozoma doesn't even flinch, and resumes her shit-eating grin.

Mel looks absolutely distraught, like someone just took the last of her favourite chocolate bar on a busy day at the candy store. "Oh Hale. You're into that, aren't you."

Somehow, Kozoma's shit-eating grin gets even bigger. Mel's had absolutely enough at this point, so she just zooms behind Kozoma and just zooms her all the way down the hall, and zooms back to Nomori, and zooms the both of them all the way down the other hall, and just to be clear, all this happens in the space of several seconds.

Nomori sighs with a smile, "Thanks, Mel."

"Aaaah, no big." She gets her phone out of her pocket - women's clothes in the Maja Empire actually have functional pockets! - and takes a look. Her eyes widen. "Fuckin' piece of shit waste of time Kozoma. I've gotta get to the studio, like, NOW. See ya later, Nomori!"

"Later!"

Then Mel zooms off.

Nomori sighs, and looks off in, well, it would be 'the distance' if there wasn't a wall in the way. Then she heads off to her Nanomechanics class, which is.. back that way. So she's gotta walk all the way back to where she was and walk down the hall Mel zoomed Kozoma down. Luckily, Kozoma is nowhere to be found. From the delays, she winds up a few minutes late, but nobody really cares about that shit in college.

The instructor, Zanfar, is a psychic man whose pink hair is slicked back. He's wearing a sweater and the kind of pants that are fancy enough you'd call them trousers. "Ah, Miss Anzakam. Good, we're all here, then. As I was about to say, we'll be going over the functions of D-Class nanomachinery today. Which is why I did not assign you any reading, as they are not featured in your textbook. D-Class is the absolute cutting edge, and is still in experimental phases. It should likely be ready for professional use by the time you graduate, so I figured it would be good to go over it. And it would be your luck, and my great privilege, to have a sample to demonstrate for you today!"

So he gets a jar and glove out the front desk, puts the glove on, and opens the jar. he taps his index and thumb together twice, which makes the glove project a display. he taps on it a bit, and a fuckin' SWARM comes out of the jar. It flies around for a bit making various shapes, until settling back into the jar.

If they were flies instead of nanomachines, the class mighta caught a few in their gaping mouths. For reference, the kind of stuff they're used to is a long night of programming, then keeping a safe distance before running it and hoping the machines don't go goo on you. Which, even if they do, they're slow, so it's easy to halt the program, or just destroy them, if you fucked up REAL bad. So this new shit's kinda blowin' their minds.

Nomori can hardly take any notes the whole lecture.

\---

Mel's in the studio with several other students, tuning her guitar, when a long-haired psychic girl in a red friggin'  _ ballgown _ strides in and sings a couple bars from the classic ballad "Strike of the Hammer", about the Workers' Rebellions in the early 92nd century that ended up deposing the Imperial monarchy.

Mel plays the next few bars back at her, and is like, "Heeey, Shira! Why so late?"

Shira puts the back of her hand on her forehead, leans back, and sighs, "It's that troublemaker, Kozoma Anthalai! She seems to be incapable of not causing drama at the trans club! So of course  _ I _ have to clean up the mess."

"Ugggh. I had an encounter with her earlier, too. What's even her problem?"

"I make no claim to know such things! Though, I suppose I could, if only I rifled around in that head of hers.. but why in the Endless Ocean would I want to do that!? Also, that would be really creepy of me. Anyways!"

The older, brown-haired rock man sitting amongst everyone stands up and claps his hands together, "Yes, anyways! Now that everyone's here, we can begin today's practice!"

\---

After the music practice, Mel's like, "Y'know, Shira, we go pretty well together!"

"Oh, yes! I had a great time!"

"Yeah, but I mean, your voice goes real well with my guitar."

Shira blinks a couple times, "I guess? I mean, I wasn't really focused on that, more on just projecting my voice."

Mel puts her arm around Shira and smirks, "Well, how about we make.. a different kind of music together? I'd love to hear more of that voice of yours. And I could show you just how well these guitarist's fingers of mine work."

"Oh! Yeah! I'd love to jam sometime! I  _ can _ do singing other than classical, though not necessarily as well, but hey! Trying different things is great!"

"I, uh. Waaasn't talking about that."

"Huh?"

"Y'know, guitarists fingers!" And then she just taps them on Shira's shoulder, while sticking her tongue out and wiggling her eyebrows.

"You.. want to give me a.. massage? I don't really need one, but uh, thanks for the offer, I guess?"

Mel clasps her hands, index fingers pointed up, and takes a deep breath. "Shira, I'm asking you if you wanna have sex with me."

"Oh! Haha. No."

Mel leans back, arms hanging, and groans, "Alright, see ya around, I guess."

"See you next time!"

Then Mel just makes her way out of the building, hunched over and kicking her feet the whole way. Nomori shows up at the bottom of the outdoor stairs.

"Hey, Mel! Uh, what's up with you?"

"I was really in the mood for some sex today, but nope, rejection, left and right! Behind and ahead! Up and down! Seriously, I asked like, sixteen people or whatever. Mostly on my phone in the middle of class, but still!"

Nomori puts her arm around Mel and is just, "Aaah, it'll be fine! You're Melkash Kersath! Someone'll probably be all over you tomorrow."  _ But I should be all over you right now! Yes, that would be great to say. _ Nomori opens her mouth again, but nothing comes out.

"Huh?"

"Nevermind. Wanna play some games?"

"Dragon Racer 10?"

"Oh, so you  _ want _ to get your ass handed to you?"

Mel can't help but think,  _ Fuck yeah I want you to handle my ass! _ "Hey, hey! I've been playing some on my own. I got an ace up my sleeve now!"

Nomori chuckles, "We'll see about that!"  


*** 


	2. 07N-03-10031

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's meet Kese!
> 
>  

07N-03-10031.

So Mel's sitting at a table in the campus cafeteria, eating lunch with a short, plump wind girl with her beige hair swept to her right, who is also wearing a gray dress shirt.

Mel's all like, "well, Kese, you gotta just, like, uh. I mean, look. My advice is just.. talk to people. But I know that doesn't help you. I just don't really know HOW to help you. But hey, I think you've done real well without my help so far! I mean, you're the one who spoke to me first, remember?"

"Well, heh, yeah..."

"So I guess, whatever you did there. Keep doing that."

"I'll see what I can do, I suppose."

"And hey, I can introduce you to practically anybody on campus! Just say the word."

Kese nods, and then she freezes for a moment and just takes out her phone and fiddles with it. Like, she doesn't even play a game or browse the internet, she's just swiping through screens of apps like a doofus. Mel blinks a few times and then looks behind herself, and sees Nomori heading towards her and Kese. Mel waves with her arm extended all the way out, while Nomori just flashes her hand for a couple seconds. She sits at the table with the other two and is all like, "Oh, hey Mel, is this a friend of yours?"

"Oh, yeah, this is Kese. Hey, c'mon, whatcha doin' on your phone? Kese?" Mel just reaches over and snaps her fingers in Kese's face a few times.

Kese's train of thought for the past moment has been running on the rails out of control, which is finally derailed by a series of explosions on the track. Kese looks up. "Uuhh, uh. H-hi."

"Well, hello, Kese, I'm Nomori! Nice to meet you." Hey, remember how I said that Mel could just melt into Nomori's smiles? Well, Kese skips that and just fuckin' sublimates into gas and blows herself away. By which I mean, she just cannot. She is the Platonic Form of the Useless Lesbian.

 _Oh Hale, she smiled at me! Can I just die now? That would be great._ "I'm hello, wind.. phone, hi, Kese, um, nakarin - law. Uh."

"Oh no! Did I break her?"

Mel zips over to Kese and shakes her shoulder. Kese just fuckin yelps and flies up to the ceiling. That wasn't one of my silly metaphors, by the way, she literally does that. Wind maja!

"Meeeeeel!" Nomori pushes Mel's forehead with a single finger, almost tipping her over. "Don't startle people like that!

"Uh, sorry." Mel zips back to her seat and takes a bite of her greenbread. It's tangy.

Nomori morphs one of her fingers into a vine and extends it all the way up to Kese, "Would you like to come back down? We don't bite! I swear!"

You can imagine one of those pink bubbles anime backgrounds as Kese takes hold of the vine and is gently tugged back down by Nomori. I mean, this is practically an anime already, were it not in a non-visual format and written by a Canadian, both of which disqualify this from actual anime-hood.

Kese just plops back down into her seat and continues staring in awe at Nomori.

Nomori chuckles, "If you don't have anything to say, that's fine. We can all just enjoy eachother's company!" She just sits there, smiling, and stares at the table, wondering about groceries.

Kese stares at her lap and fiddles with her phone again. She suddenly remembers that she has food and quickly grabs a fish ball and puts it in her mouth. This one is halibut. Mel goes crunch-crunch. Someone at another table taps their fingers on it. Someone else coughs. Mel's crunching becomes deafening. The train tracks have been repaired. Kese's train is going at full speed again, carrying its full-to-near-bursting cargo of _oh hale oh hale oh hale oh hale_ and _im so dumb how can i even be here_ and _dragons please come blow up kandro city so i dont have to be at this table any longer_ to and fro in her mind. Something starts rattling.

Nomori looks up, "Uh, Kese, is something wrong?"

Kese looks up, reverie shattered, and realizes that she is rattling her chair. She tries to push it down to stop the rattling, but only manages to dampen it a bit. "No! I'm fine! I'm fine."

Nomori puts her hand on Kese's shoulder, at which point Kese's head is an apple. "Hey, I just wanna make sure you're alright. You're so jumpy and quiet!

"Hah, I'm just. Shy. Y'know? Uh. Talking. Hard."

Mel looks back up, finally, "You were talking to me just fine before Nomori showed u-" She moves her tray aside, puts her elbows on the table, and puts her chin in her hands. And then she just smiles at Kese, and winks.

Nomori's mouth is a flat line, and she blinks a few times. "Mel, what's going on?"

Mel mimes zipping her mouth up, crosses her arms, sits up straight in her seat, and looks away, shaking her head, eyes closed.

"Why won't anyone tell me what's going on??"

\---

So, Nomori, Shira, Kalzan, and a third girl are sitting at a table in a room covered with posters and print-offs of various kinds. One of the walls has a holoprojector showing an X symbol which has a square on one end, a squiggle opposite that, and a perpendicular line and a circle opposite eachother on the ends of the other bar - the transgender symbol in maja culture.

The third girl is another psychic, with a bob and wearing only an unzipped hoodie and short shorts. She's staring at the ceiling fan with these fuckin' black holes that threaten to completely consume her pink irises, and softly laughing.

Shira is rummaging around in her bag and pulls out a tablet, which she sets to project perpendicularly, and starts off, "Alright, first order of business - Oh, Hale. Andra. Andra!"

The other psychic girl slowly lowers her face to look at Shira, "......huh"

"Could you at least have the decency to not be blitzed out of your dragon-food mind during a _club council meeting_??"

"pffff babe so whaaat we're just not gonna get anything done like always anyway it doesn't even matter so who cares"

Shira just facepalms.

Nomori reaches over to Andra, puts her hand on her shoulder, and is all like, "C'mooon, maybe if we actually put in the effort, we _can_ get something done today?"

Andra looks at Nomori, closes her eyes for a moment, then blinks a few times, "Oh, fine. There, I'm sober now. Happy?"

Shira sighs, "Yes. Thank you. So! First order of business!  We need to do something about -"

The door is almost blasted open, and Kozoma walks in, in her pink dress shirt and blue skirt, "Heeeeeeeey, bitches, what's going on now?!"

Shira narrows her eyes and hunches over slightly, "- Kozoma."

Kalzan, who's closest to the door, turns around in his seat and does that sort of forward head tilt and raised eyebrows thing at Kozoma. The effect would be better if he had glasses to look over, but he gets his point across. "I would appreciate it if you didn't ever again make me feel like I'm about to get randomly blasted or something ever again."

Kozoma strides over and ruffles his hair, "Aah, whatcha complainin' about, Kally, you can handle it!"

He whacks her hand away and stands up, "Excuse me!? Is this how we're starting this conversation, with a powerist stereotype!? Just because I'm a metal -"

Shira uses telekinesis to slap Kozoma with a pillow from the nearby couch.

Kozoma just fuckin' laughs, "What is this, a club meeting or a sleepover??"

Shira smacks her with the pillow repeatedly, which soon shuts her up. "Get out of here, Kozoma! You're banned!"

"What!? Says who!?"

"I'm on the club council, a meeting of which you have just interrupted!"

"You're not like, the Trans Queen or whatever, you can't tell me what to do!"

Shira turns to the other trans club council members, "Who votes to ban Kozoma? Raise your hands!"

Five hands raise - Andra raises both of hers.

"There you go, Kozoma! The _council_ says: fuck off!" And then she batters Kozoma with the pillow until she leaves.

"Yeah, yeah, fine! I'll start my own club! The Everyone Can Suck Kozoma's Dick Club! Except only girls can actually -"

Shira telekinetically shuts the door in her face, then turns back to the rest of the council, "Okay! First order of business done! What a productive meeting!!"

"Not," Nomori chimes in, "that that will likely stop her from barging in at random."

"Yeah, well, I'll update our records now," Shira heads over to the projected transgender symbol and swipes it with her hand, revealing a computer interface, "if she _does_ cause more trouble with a club she's banned from, she can get strikes on her academic record."

Andra leans back in her chair and puts her feet on the table, "alright, babes, now that the Bitch Queen is gone, are we actually here to do anything else?"

Shira is typing on a projected keyboard, "Yes, actually. Second order of business: I would like to plan an event."

"Babe, this isn't gonna be, like, another fuckin' formal ballroom thing is it?"

Shira finishes at the terminal and turns back to the council, "Oh, why ever would I again try to inflict some _sophistication_ on this school?"

Kalzan speaks up, "Sophisticated? Perhaps sometime last millennium. Just stuffy, now."

"I just want people to have some class, is all!"

Andra rocks herself by pushing her feet on the table, "Class? I thought we've been spending the past few centuries getting rid of that."

Shira sits down, puts her elbows on the table, and her head into her hands, and groans, "You know what I mean!"

Nomori finally says something, "Well, I liked your dance, Shira."

Shira reaches over and grabs Nomori's hand with both of hers, "Yes! Thank you! At least someone here has an appreciation for _culture_."

Kalzan leans over, putting his chin on his fist, "Oh, really? Who did you take, Nomori?"

Nomori chuckles a bit, "I just took Mel, because I'm a huge dork and do practically everything with her, anyways."

"Oh? I wasn't aware you two were together!"

"What!? Ahahaha, no, no, hahaha, we're not - haha, no, she's just like, my best friend in the entire world, y'know? We're not. No. Hahaha..."

"Well, being rather acquainted with our dear Melkash myself, I don't think that sort of event is really her style. I think, just maybe, the fact that she actually went with you says a lot."

"Haha, like, 'I love doing stuff with my best friend!' That sort of thing! Hahaha!"

Andra clunks her chair back down on all fours and leans in with Kalzan, "Babe, you're a horrible liar."

"I'm not lying!"

"Technichally, perhaps. Not to us. But to yourself."

"I'm not lying to myself either!"

"So you _know_ you're completely into her and yet you do nothing?"

"Who ever - it's not - she wouldn't -" Nomori just gets up and walks around to the door.

Shira stands up as well, "Wait, Nomori, we haven't even decided on an event!"

Nomori just exits the room, and -

"BOO!"

Nomori stops, blinks, and takes a deep breath.

"Aah, you're no fun," says Kozoma.

Nomori just doesn't even fuckin' respond to her, and moves on.

Down the hallway, Nomori encounters Kese around a corner.

Kese freezes and is like, "O-oh, Nomori! Um. Hi."

"Oh, hey Kese. Let's continue walking. I don't want to let Kozoma see me stop."

"Is that that, uh, fire girl I've heard things about?"

"Most likely. Basically, she's an ass."

"Aaalright. She's someone to avoid, then!"

Nomori nods.

Kese keeps going like, "Mmmmm.. someone, I, uh, would like to, uhhh, _not_ avoid, i-is.."

Nomori puts her hand on Kese's shoulder, "Take your time."

"The person iiiiisssss.. you!" Kese finds herself unable to look at Nomori. Nomori is a star, and Kese already feels the heat of embarrassment - any more direct and she may just disintegrate on the spot.

Nomori smiles and blushes, all like, "Aaaaa, that's so sweet! Would you like a hug?"

Kese can't even talk at this point, so she just nods. And then Nomori hugs her! But, you see, what with Nomori being so tall, and Kese being kinda short, well - to put it bluntly, Kese's face is firmly planted in Nomori's boobs. It takes a full few seconds for Nomori to realize this, at which point she backs off like, "Oh! I'm so sorry - the height difference - I didn't realize -"

Kese, for her part, is just, like, a tomato now. She's just gonna melt and become ketchup any second. She actually manages to look at Nomori and, well, do a kind of flabbergasted open-mouth smile. The only sound she can manage to come out of that smile, however, is 'aaaaaaaa'.

"I, I, I'm really sorry, that probably broke several boundaries, we've only just met! Are - are you alright?"

Kese nods frantically and manages to actually form words, "I'm, good. It's fine! It's fine. That was fine. You didn't do anything wrong, hahaha! Really!"

"Are - well, okay. Are you sure?"

"Y-yes! Look, it's fine, I'm fine, you're fine. I'm completely fine with you stuffing my face in your boobs! I like boobs - oh Hale, did I really just say all that out loud? I'm sorry! I don't know how to talk to people, least of all when I'm feeling incredibly gay because a cute girl shoved my face in her boobs why aM I STILL TALKING!?" Kese grabs her cranium and just flops on the floor. This is it. With an incredibly dumb series of words, Kese has dashed all of her hopes and dreams. She curls up, because she might as well die, now. And -

Nomori crouches down and offers a hand. Kese almost can't believe what is happening. Who is this saint who deigns to grace her with continued attention, and even kindness, in the face of such abominable blunder? By all rights she should just leave Kese to her despair - that is the way of the world, is it not?

"Hey, Kese. C'mon. Let's get you up."

Kese tentatively takes Nomori's hand and allows herself to be pulled up, which she ends up not having to put much effort into - Kese didn't realise before how strong Nomori is. However, Kese looks at the floor the whole time, and continues to do so as she and Nomori continue through the hallways, only half aware that Nomori isn't letting go of her hand. She doesn't let go, either.

***


	3. 10N-03-10031

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 10N-03-10031.

Alright, Mel's in her Physics class, and the instructor has just interrupted her own lecture, "Ahh, y'know, that reminds me of my first girlfriend, thirty-odd virui ago. Just a couple o' high school kids, and we kept going back and forth, back and forth, couldn't make up our minds if we were or weren't dating!" For you humans reading at home, a maja viru is 475 days long - 476 if you count the intercalary day, Vilat - so, about 1 1/3 years. "And whenever we decided we weren't I'd always get a new girlfriend or boyfriend for 15 days or so, until we decided we were again! Can you believe your old Physics instructor had a reputation as a heartbreaker back then?" She laughs.

Mel raises her hand but doesn't wait for that to be acknowledged to speak, "Yo, Kritel, what the heck does this have to do with atoms?"

Several other students just laugh at this.

"Ehhhh, it's like, uh, I dunno, it always reminded me of electrons!"

The class just stares blankly at her.

She sighs and telekinetically picks up some particle models and has one of the electrons oscillate between the nuclei.

\---

So Mel's just sitting around with Kese in the cafeteria, and she's giggling. "Well, holding hands is a start! And I mean you basically admitted your attraction.. in a kind of weird and roundabout way, but, I mean, she sounded very understanding. I'm not surprised. So. Did you ask her out?"

Kese is just fiddling with her own fingers, like she's weaving something impossible and invisible, and she shakes her head.

Mel scoots over, puts her arm around Kese, and leans in all like, "You want some help?"

Kese nods frantically.

"Aaaalright. Well, actually," she looks at the time on her phone, "Nomori's nanomechanics class should be ending in a few minutes or so, so that's perfect timing!"

So then, the two of them make their way down the halls to Nomori's class, where she's just exiting it herself after some other students.

Nomori's like, "Oh, hey! Mel, Kese! What's up?"

Kese quickly looks at her, smiles, and waves, and then looks away.

Mel, with her arm still around Kese, is like, "Hey, Nomori! Kese was telling me about that little encounter you two had!"

"Oh, ha, well, uh," she's blushing at this point, "I thought I'd just, y'know, comfort her - oh, Kese! Are you feeling better?"

Mel lightly pushes Kese forward and pats her on the back.

Kese's looking down at the floor, all like, "Um. Yeah, uh, I'm. Yeah. Heheh."

Mel puts her hand on Kese's shoulder, "C'mon, you can do it."

Kese rocks back and forth for a moment before blurting out, "NOMORIIREALLYLIKEYOUANDIWANNAGOOUTWITHYOUATSOMEPOINTIFYOUWANT!" another moment, then, "there I said it." Kese looks up at Nomori, who is just beaming.

"I'd love to! How does three days from now sound? I have no classes then."

"I-I've just got one, i-in the, uh, morning."

"Well, there we go! You have anywhere in mind?"

"Nnnnot, really. I don't really get out much. I don't know anything about what's where."

"Hmm, well, how about I send you a few places I like, and you can choose which one you want?"

"Ah, that sounds great!"

Now, Mel just grabs one of their hands each and bounces slightly, looking at them each in turn, and just fuckin squees. Nomori raises one eyebrow at this display. It's not quite something she's accustomed to from Mel. At least - not when it comes to actual people.

Zanfar, having collected his class materials, exits the classroom, and looks at the girls with his eyebrows raised for a moment, before moving on.

\---

So, Mel and Nomori are at Mel's apartment. They're on the couch with their controllers, playing a fighting game on the big wall computer. Nomori soundly beats Mel in the first round. Like, she just keeps dodging around and poking at Mel, with the fast character she chose. Meanwhile Mel's playing the big guy who hits real hard. He's not super slow - it's a fighting game, after all - but the speed difference is significant. Mel narrows her eyes and purses her mouth and is like, "Mmmmm, that won't cut it."

"What, you wanna try me again," Nomori smirks.

So from then on, in the next few rounds, Mel's hands are blurring over the controller and suddenly the big guy she's playing turns from a predictable lunkhead into an absolute destruction machine. After the fourth round of this, Mel sits back, arms behind her head, eyes closed and smiling proudly like some smug asshole who just beat a kid at chess.

Nomori, on the other hand, is just staring at the screen. She takes a big breath and lets it out like some gigantic contraption venting steam. She then looks away and is all like, "I don't wanna play this anymore."

Mel looks at her, mouth open at first, but then she grits her teeth and winces, "Oh, uh, I, didn't make you uh.. mad? Did I?"

"No, no, no. I'm not angry, or frustrated, or any such thing. I'm just. Not. Mad. Just.. uncomfortable," then she looks at Mel, squints her eyes, and points her controller at her, "y'know, this is why electrics have separate esports leagues. Why should I even play this with you if you're not gonna play fair?"

Mel gets up and closes the game on the screen, "Alright, no more of this, then. Uhh," then she scrolls through a bunch of titles with her finger, until stopping on one. "Aha! Here it is. "Eternal Round of the Bridge". A nice visual novel we can relax to."

"Oh! What's it like?"

Mel waves her hand around, "Aah, I don't remember the plot. I just like it 'cuz it's really gay."

Nomori chuckles, "You're not showing me porn, are you?"

Mel just stands up straight, "Ghhhhhh-gh-gh-gh no! No, this isn't porn! Why would I - Hahaha, ha, I mean, if you wanted to, I could -"

"Mel, I'm just teasing! Visual novels just have a reputation, you know."

"Yeaaah, lots of smutty ones - not that there's anything wrong with that! This just isn't, one of, them."

Nomori relaxes her eyes and smiles and is all like, "So, what you're implying is that you have and have played pornographic visual novels."

"Who hasn't!?"

Nomori chuckles again and tints her head, "I am surprised you bother, though, what with your sex life."

"It's not like I can always get what I want! As I showed. A few days ago." Mel crosses her arms, hunches over,  and looks away, squinting and pouting. She just stands there for a few seconds before being all like, "So we gonna play "Round" or what??"

\---

The game is just as gay as Mel says. She ends up juggling like five girlfriends before settling on the mysterious foreigner with a sad backstory, all the while lamenting the lack of polyamory in the game.

\---

"Why can't I just have all the girlfriends?? It would be great! But nooo, these game devs are still harping on the whole One True Love thing in the eleventh fucking millennium, for some reason!"

\---

"No but really I love this game, it's so great, that's why I criticize it so much! Y'know, I fucking love Shibara, she's so saaaaad, I just wanna help her! Why can't I help her?? Nomoriiiii, we should write a fic about it!"

"Mel, do you understand the first thing about writing literature?"

"I'm an artist! It can't be that hard!"

"Music and writing are very different things, Mel."

"I write my own lyrics!"

"Yeah, that's more akin to poetry, rather than narrative."

"Anyways, who even cares! The point is to have fun!"

"Well, if we're gonna do this, I want to make sure we do it right-"

Mel throws her hands up, "BAAAH! Bah, I say! Get that perfectionist engineer shit outta here!" She does a shooing motion with her hands. "This is ART!"

"Now, Mel, nanomechanics is very different from engineering-"

"Don't wanna hear it! It's all a bunch of machine stuff where you gotta do things exact or else it'll fall apart!"

"Honestly, nanomechanics is mostly programming, it's really hard to get things perfect!  Bugs, Mel! Bugs!"

"Okay but it still puts you in that whole mindset. Which you just showed me! So there." And she just sticks her tongue out.

Then Nomori just grabs Mel's tongue with a small vine and tugs on it lightly.

"Blaaaaah! Nomoliiiiii thop iiiiit!"

Nomori retracts her vine, and Mel's all like,"Peh, peh! Gah, now I just taste dumb gross plants you're not supposed to eat!"

"Well maybe you should think better of what you do with that tongue of yours, then." _I can think of much better places for it to be. Haha. C'mon, Nomori. Say it! Let's go! Stop just staring at her! Agh why am I so dumb. She wouldn't wanna._

Meanwhile, Mel's just, _Yes, yes. Hahahaha. Yes. This is your chance, Mel! A witty lewd joke! This is my chance to get things going! Stop giving her that awkward smile and say it! C'moooon!_ "Haha! Like on, some.. food! Hey, I'll get some chips!" _Oh Hale, Melkash Kersath, you are a complete moron. Just utter trash. Whyyyyyyy? Food????? Chips?? Come on!!! Why is this so hard!? Just tell her you love her and wanna suck her dick! It's not that hard! She certainly isn't, now, either! Because I'm a dumbass!_

And then Nomori's like, _Yeah, see? She isn't interested in me like that. Chips would be nice, though._

Yeah. The dramatic irony hurts, doesn't it?

***


	4. 13N-03-10031

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 13N-03-10031.

Ok, lemme set the scene, here. The sky is orange in the east, fading to purple in the west. The sun, somewhat to the northeast, is just about ready to set. It illuminates the intricately flowing carved stone facades of the buildings along the quay in Kandro City's Old Town, which the Seiken River gently laps. Nomori and Kese walk along the quay, which they largely have to themselves at this hour. And they're holding hands as they do so!

Kese's all like, "You really do know how to relax!"

Nomori laughs a bit, "Well, it's very important to me, to relax."

"Honestly I'm real glad we're doing something relaxing. If we did something hectic like an amusement park, I'd probably be hiding in a bathroom about now."

"Oh no! I'd sit around with you and help you calm down, and then we'd probably leave."

"Yeaaaah, just, so many people..."

"Though, honestly. if we did go now, there'd be barely anyone there. Probably just a few other people on dates, hahah. But.. I don't think I'd wanna go to an amusement park, anyway."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, uh, the only time I've been to one is on a field trip back in elementary school. The whole thing would probably just ultimately remind me of..."

"Of what?"

"Nevermind." Nomori stops and leans on the quay railing, looking at the river.

Kese leans beside her and is like, "I really love how the river reflects the sky at this hour. It's all sparkly."

"Mmm, yeah. Gets even better after sunset, though."

"Oh, don't make me compare them! I can't do that. Look, the sun and the Bridge are lesbians and girlfriends. They're both perfect!"

Nomori chuckles and looks to the side, "Well, the sun does ride the Bridge all day.."

Kese laughs as well, "Oh, Hale! I walked right into that one, didn't I."

The two of them laugh a little bit more, then Kese takes hold of Nomori's arm.

After a moment, Nomori slips that arm around Kese's back, and they watch the sunset together. As the sun gets into its hole for its westward subterranean trek, to the northwest a bit begins appearing a blue glow, which extends, over 15 minutes or so, to trace the sun's path across the sky as the sunlight recedes and the night takes hold.

Kese's the one who breaks the silence, "I love the Bridge in nachabado. Takes up too much of the sky in jarado. Whereas now, it's just right."

"Well, there's still, uh, 21 days of nachabado, this tafra."

"Yeah. I should get outside at night more, before jarado rolls around."

"You don't?"

"I, uh. It never really occurred to me? Look. I basically only ever go outside for school, or a doctor's appointment or something."

"Well, I'm glad you came outside tonight."

Kese closes her eyes and lets out a single soft laugh, "Me too."

At this point, they continue walking down the quay, the Seiken twinkling in a way the sky never does. The Bridgelight is enough to see by, though not currently at the level of a full moon. It gives everything the slightest blue twinge.

As they walk, they begin to hear a sound, clear in the night. It's an acoustic guitar. They eventually get close enough to better resolve the notes, and Nomori sways as she walks. It's a song with a quick beat. Then she stops and lifts their held hands over Kese's head. Kese, who was busy looking at the Bridge, jerks in surprise at this.

Nomori chuckles and is like, "Well?"

Kese blinks at her a bit.

Nomori closes her eyes and lets out a single laugh, "I'm asking if you wanna dance, Kese."

"Oh!" And then she does a twirl, as the raised hands indicate she should.

Nomori takes her shoulder and leads Kese in a simple dance mostly involving turning and swaying, since she doesn't know how Kese is at dancing.

This goes on for several minutes, and then the music ends. The two of them laugh together, and head over to the guitarist.

Nomori stops when she gets a good look at the guitarist and is all, "Wait, what? What are you doing here, Mel?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Playing guitar."

"Yeah. I come out here to practice. C'mon, you don't really think you're the only one who likes the Old Town quay at night, yeah?"

Nomori blinks a few times, "How in twelve virui did we never figure out we both like it here?"

Mel shrugs, and then a moment later is like, "Well, if I knew you two were coming here, I woulda kept it til tomorrow."

Kese chimes in with, "Well, I think the music is nice! That dance was certainly fun."

"Heh, you two want some more?"

Nomori's all like, "Didn't come out here to dance, but.. I'm in the mood, now!"

Kese's just like, "Yeah!"

So Mel starts playing some more, and Nomori and Kese dance some more.

\---

When all's said and done, Mel walks with Nomori and Kese as they head home for the night. Nomori's place is closer to Old Town than the others, so she splits off first, after hugging Kese good night.

"Hey, Mel. Do uh, do you mind walking me home?"

"Huh?"

"Well, uh, I, uh. I don't usually, go outside at night, uh."

"Aaaaw," Mel puts her arm around Kese's shoulders, "there's nothing to be scared of! But yeah, I'll walk with you."

"Okay, thanks. Aaaalso, I, uh. Haha. Nomori. Sheeeeee's great! Oh Hale, she's so nice, and i just love how relaxing she is, and, just. Aaaaaaaaaa!"

"I knoooow!  Hey, did you know she's got this huge dog plush that she hugs? You gotta see that!"

"Aaaaa, that sounds so cute!"

"It is! Oh, oh, have you stroked her hair? I gotta know how that is!"

"Ohhh, that's just, I wish I had the nerve to ask something like that! That sounds great, now that I think about it. Her hair looks so soft!"

"It does. I wish I could, too.."

"Wait. Mel."

"Huh?"

"Are.. are you into Nomori, too?"

The alarm is going off in Mel's head now, _SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT FUCK SHIT HALE DRAGONFOOD YOU'RE DRAGONFOOD, MEL FUCK FUCK SHIT_ , "Uhhhhhhhhhh. I mean. Like. You know. Um. Fuck. I'm so stupid! I need to back off, now!"

"Woah, hey! It's fine if you are! I don't mind."

"Oh. You're uh, poly?"

"Mmm, uh, in theory? I mean, this was literally the first date I've ever been on. But I think I'm okay with that, yeah!"

Mel sighs, "Okay, well. You gotta keep this a secret, okay?"

"Um, alright. Wait. Twelve virui. Nomori mentioned that. Is that how long you've known eachother?"

"Yeah..."

"And you haven't told her, yet."

"It's, just, gghhhh. You of all people should understand how hard it is!"

"Oh, yeah. I do. But, you're not me! I wouldn't think that'd be hard for you. I mean, haven't you done stuff with lots of people?"

"Yeah, but. Nomori. Is different. Like, most of the people I've been with have been just hooking up. One night of fun. A few people, I actually dated for a while. Like, Kalzan. He's a nice guy. But it's just. With him, we both knew it wasn't gonna be a long term thing, and that was okay! I just think he's nice, and that's about it. Nomori, on the other hand.. I fucking _love_ her, alright? Oh Hale, I love her so much! And, wow. I've never told this to anybody, and it kind of feels good to finally get off my chest!?"

Kese raises her hand to put it on Mel's shoulder, "I haven't known her as long as you have, but, if this first date is anything to go by, I think I might be going in that direction, myself. So, I think I get it."

Mel pauses for a moment, then smiles and puts her hand on Kese's. After a few moments of that, they continue on, eventually making their way to Kese's place.

As Kese's unlocking the front door, she's all, "I think all my sisters are out, so it should be nice and quiet. My little brother might be home, though. And my parents are probably asleep?"

"All your sisters? How many you got?"

"Ugh, four."

"Wow. Six kids. That's uh. A lot."

Kese gets the door open and the two of them walk inside, "Yeaaaaah. It really is. How about you?"

"Eh... Eh."

Kese looks at Mel with an eyebrow raised, and is like, "Well, alright-"

Kese's brother, a little blue-haired water boy of six virui, comes around a corner holding an empty jug, "Hey, Kese, we're out of kaloi juice."

Mel freezes.

\---

49J-04-10022.

Suddenly she was in that labyrinth of an abandoned office building again, barely any light to see by. She was screaming for her little brother. A little water boy. _Kajan! Kajan! KAJAN!_ Running, running, turning corners this way and that, screaming. And in the corner of her eye, sometimes, she could see a flash of pink hair. No matter how fast she ran, she couldn't find him. Running, running, running, screaming, screaming _KAJAN! KAJAN! KAJAN!_ running running running _KAJAAAAAAN!_ running running running SCREAMING RUNNING SCREAMING SWIRLING DIRECTIONLESS UNENDING RUNNING CAN'T FIND KAJAN CAN'T GET OUT CAN'T GET OUT GOTTA GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT

\---

13N-03-10031.

Mel had frozen for a solid minute, and tears were streaming down her face now. Kese shuffled her brother away, then came back, held Mel's hands, and lead her to a couch. Once they were both sitting, Kese simply hugged her.

This went on for several more minutes, before Mel finally snapped out of it. She closed her eyes, wiped her face on her arm, and sniffled. She hugged Kese back for a moment, then got up.

"I'm going home."

Kese just nodded, and Mel left.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It begins.


	5. 14N-03-10031

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 14N-03-10031.

Kese sat at her computer in her room, holo-screen flickering, chat client open.

                KESE SHINTALOR

                hey nomori you there?

 

                NOMORI ANZAKAM

                Oh, hey, Kese! What's up?

 

                KESE SHINTALOR

                has

                uh

                has mel talked to you this morning?

                she hasnt responded to me

 

                NOMORI ANZAKAM

                No, why?

 

                KESE SHINTALOR

                well uh

                she kinda freaked out last night?

 

                NOMORI ANZAKAM

                Um. What?

 

                KESE SHINTALOR

                like

                she just froze and started crying when she saw my brother

 

                NOMORI ANZAKAM

                Oh Hale.

                Um.

                What type is your brother, and how old is he?

 

                KESE SHINTALOR

                water and six

 

                NOMORI ANZAKAM

                Fuck!

                Shit!

                I'm gonna go over to her place now. You should come, too.

 

                KESE SHINTALOR

                uh ok

Kese got off of her computer, grabbed her phone, and rushed outside. It was around midday. There were various people milling about in the tree-laden, heavily gardened suburb. It took her about 20 minutes to fly over to Mel's old brick apartment building. After several more minutes, Nomori showed up. They went up together, and when Nomori knocked on Mel's door, it was several minutes before Mel opened the door. She was hunched over a bit, in nothing but a knee-length tank top, and had bags under her eyes. Her hair was spikier than usual and much more all over the place.

"Oh. Uh, hey."

"Mel, have you slept at all?" Nomori said.

"No."

Nomori just walked right in and went to Mel's kitchen, "What have you eaten?"

Mel blinked a few times, "I had food."

"What food, and when?"

"Some crackers, uh, last night."

Nomori grabbed some eggs out of the fridge and started on frying them.

Kese came in, finally, closed the door, and went over to Mel, "Uh, is it okay if I hug you?"

"I guess."

Kese hugged Mel's arm, "I'm sorry about my brother."

Mel put her other hand on Kese's head, "You couldn't have known."

"Do you mind telling me what that was about?"

"I had a brother just like yours, when I was a kid. He's dead. That's it."

Kese gave Mel a full body hug, and there was silence other than the hissing, crackling, and popping of frying eggs.

Several minutes later, Nomori broke that silence, "Kese, bring her to the table."

Kese did so, sitting Mel on the couch which the coffee table was in front of. She sat beside her, still holding onto her arm. Soon, Nomori brought the four fried eggs on a plate, with a fork and an orange glass of kaloi juice. Then she sat on the other side of Mel and put the fork in her hand. Mel sighed and started eating the eggs. She ate two of them, drank some kaloi, ate the remaining two eggs, and finished off the juice. Then the three of them just sat there, Kese and Nomori holding Mel. Maybe ten minutes later, Mel shuffled her arms up and put them around the other two.

Then she sighed, "Thanks, you two."

"So then, " said Nomori, "are you gonna get therapy now?"

"Nomori, I don't need help. It was a slip up. An honest mistake."

"Aren't we helping you now?"

"You're my friends. That's different."

Nomori just sighed and relented. They'd had this sort of conversation several times in the past, and Mel was always so stubborn about it.

The three of them sat with eachother for maybe another hour before Mel fell asleep. Nomori got out her phone from her bag and opened up the chat for her Literature class.

                NOMORI ANZAKAM

                Not showing up today. Friend had emergency.

                KERIL NINOKANA

                Oh no! That's quite alright. Read the rest of _Signal_ for the 19th.

                NOMORI ANZAKAM

                Got it.

"So, uh," Kese said, "what should we do now?"

"I dunno. Play video games until she wakes up? Quietly, of course."

"You mean, on the big screen?"

"Yeah?"

"So, like, with controllers?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. I'm, uh, I'm more used to keyboard and mouse. Haha, wow, I literally haven't held a controller in.. five virui?"

"Mel doesn't even _has_ a desktop. She might have an old laptop in a box somewhere. But, don't worry. I'll go easy on you. Unlike her." Nomori stuck her tongue out at the sleeping Mel and chuckled.

"Oh, does she go too fast?"

" _And_ she'll gloat about it."

"Wow, Mel. Wow. Oh, but, uh, maybe we shouldn't talk shit about her right now?"

Nomori chuckled again, "Yeah, probably not."

The two of them ended up playing a nice, quiet puzzle game. At one point, when they were stumped, Mel suddenly half woke up, took the controller, solved the puzzle in about five seconds, then fell back asleep again. Nomori and Kese looked at eachother, wide-eyed, for a few moments before returning to their game.

After Mel had slept for about five hours, she properly woke up, and put her arms around Nomori and Kese.

Kese jumped slightly, then settled back down, saying, "Oh, that's just Mel!"

"What else would that have been?" said Mel.

"I-I dunno. I was focused on this puzzle, alright!"

Mel chuckled and ruffled Kese's hair.

Nomori chimed in, saying, "So, Mel, you gonna solve another puzzle?"

"What?"

"You did one before. Really fast."

"Oh Hale, I'm doing puzzles in my sleep, now? I think, more than anything, that is the most disconcerting thing today." She stretched, and continued, "Alright, you know what I think I could use? Some exercise."

Nomori smiled, "That's a great idea! Get the blood flowing around, and through your brain. Should help you feel better."

"Well, y'know. I also wouldn't mind smacking someone around a bit. To the arena!" She raised her arms, jumped off the couch, and zoomed into her room to get ready.

\---

So there the three of 'em are, in an empty, cubic room with a waxed, wooden floor, and white walls with coloured diagonal lines on them - twelve different colours, each one representing one of the types of maja, save for the thirteenth, the dark maja, who'd only been recently brought back into the fold.

Mel's all jumping back and forth, ready to get on with it. "So who wants to get their ass kicked first?"

Kese just fiddles with her own hands and quickly looks back and forth between Mel and Nomori.

Nomori sighs and steps towards Mel, "I rather doubt you'll be doing _anything_ to my ass, let alone kicking it."

Kese looks down, blushes, and mumbles something. It's "I'd like to do something to your ass..."

And, of course, Mel and Nomori have similar thoughts that they don't voice, because, need I remind you, they're still awkward dorks!

But Mel and Nomori don't hear Kese, because Mel's too busy being all, "No, no, seriously! I've been working on my technique! I think I've got it, now!"

Nomori's just like, "Only one way to find out."

Mel and Nomori clasp their right hands above and bow with their left arms outstretched. Then they take a few steps back from eachother, and after a second, Mel starts all zipping around every which way. Nomori whips a few vines around herself to keep Mel at bay, though Mel is able to get past a few times to deliver small shocks, at which Nomori winces and grunts. Mel zips in front of Nomori and blows raspberries at her, and then zips behind her a few meters back and lets loose a small, crackling lightning bolt. After the flash settles, Nomori is ducking and flailing her vines around. She stops as she gets up, giving Mel a chance to get in close again. Nomori whips a large vine from her right hand behind her, forcing Mel to dodge left -

And Mel trips on the small vine Nomori has been slowly snaking on the floor this whole time. Immediately, Nomori pushes all her might into it, making it snake up Mel's leg, and it's quickly joined by more vines, going up her torso, her arms, restraining her in place. Mel struggles against the vines to no avail.

Nomori turns around to face Mel , counts down from five, and is all like, "Mel, how many times do I gotta tell you, you're too fast for your own good. Patience wins the day again!"

Mel sighs, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you gonna let me down?"

"Hmmmm, I dunno..." Nomori ruffles Mel's hair, "I kinda like you like this."

"H-hey!! What???" Mel starts struggling again, though internally she's just, _shit, I kinda like this, too..._

Kese's just over in the corner, blushing, cuz the implications are fuckin' obvious. But it's not long before Nomori does let Mel back down, and then Kese joins them all like, "Wow! That was amazing, Nomori!"

Nomori looks away a bit, "Aw, thanks, Kese. I'm just glad there are calmer ways to fight. That's not usually a word you'd associate with fighting."

Mel just goes over to Nomori and pushes her slightly, "Yeah, on that note, maybe you should sit the next one out."

Nomori looks at Mel, eyes narrowed and smiling, then sticks out her tongue all like, "I'm fine! You're the one who's mad. About me beating you again!"

Mel just keeps trying to push her towards the wall. 'Trying' being the operative word. Nomori's not literally rooting herself in - she wouldn't want to break the floor, after all - but she may as well be, as far as Mel's pushing is concerned.

Kese's like, "I'm getting a feeling that this happens a lot. Has Mel _ever_ beat you in sparring, Nomori?"

"Oh, she used to kick my ass in the arena all the time, back in high school."

Mel slumps over, all, "Ah, I've trained you too well! I just wanted you to be able to defend yourself, not hand my ass to me all day, every day!"

Nomori gives Mel a small hug, "You did well." And then she heads over to the wall.

"Alright, then. Kese! Let's see what you got!"

"Uh, wait. Me? I'm, uh, I'm not really - um."

"What, you don't wanna fight?"

"Not, really?"

Mel just blinks at her, "But, you're a maja! Fighting's what we _do_!"

"Well, I mean, I'm not really good -"

"Can't get better at it unless you try and keep at it!"

"Well, just. Look." Kese closes her fists close to her chest for a moment, and then pushes her hands out towards Mel. A light breeze brushes her. Her hair tousles a bit. She just looks side to side, then contorts her face in bafflement.

"Don't tell me that's the best you got!!"

Kese just looks down and away, and fiddles with her hands. Mel has her hands on her head, and her mouth's all open wide.

Nomori comes back to them and puts her hands on their shoulders. "C'mon, Mel, don't be like that. Some people just don't wanna fight."

"But, but, it's part of the foundation of our culture! What would we be if we didn't -"

"And we should be thankful  for our ancestors who fought to create a society where we don't _have to_ fight. Where it's fun and games." Then Nomori gives Kese a hug. "It's alright, Kese. You're alright."

After the hug, Kese looks back at Mel all like, "Never figured you for an 'upholding the traditional values of our culture' type."

"Woah, woah, woah! Don't get me wrong, here! I'm not like _that_! I just - Nomori, I don't really believe you, that we're in a world where we no longer have to fight."

Nomori looks away and sighs.

"Kajan was taken away from me by someone who needed to be fought - _still_ needs to be fought. And you -"

"Can we not? Can we not talk about this?"

"Ah, sorry. Yeah, you're right. But you get what I mean."

"Just - let's not ruin this day, OK?"

"Alright, alright. You're right. I need to relax. This sparring got me all pumped up. Maybe wasn't the best exercise choice, today."

Kese suddenly hugs the both of them, "I don't wanna see you two argue!"

Mel and Nomori look at eachother and chuckle, and make it into a three way hug.

After a moment, Kese looks up at both of them and is like, "Maybe we should just go play some more video games. Oh, and how about we order some Alian food?"

Mel pretends to be shocked, "Order!? No, no, no, we don't need some mediocre fast food kebab! I'll show you a _real_ kebab, passed down the Kersath line for centuries! Wait, shit, do I even have anymore olives? I probably need more olives, so let's stop at a grocery store first!"

And the three of them leave the arena, arms around eachother, smiling.

***


	6. 15N-03-10031

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 15N-03-10031.

Mel sat on her couch, wrapped up in a blanket, holding a cup of coffee. As her apartment faced the west, early morning sunlight was coming in. She flipped through various streams on the big holo screen.

A news anchor said, "Imperial occupation forces in Haradon City met with heavy resistance yesterday-"

Mel changed to a different stream and thought, _Ugh, why did we think that was a good idea again? A fucking invasion. What is this, the tumultuous age? Are we back in the fucking 85th century or some shit, laying siege to castles and running peasants off their land?? Fuckin'..._

She eventually settled on a stream showing an animated series in which the siege of a castle was ongoing. "Yes, let's ignore the real war by watching a fake one. Ugh, come on, can I just get something nice??"

She took a sip of her coffee and waved her hand furiously to flip through streams. She soon decided to switch from live streams to the VOD selection. She settled on a colourful children's cartoon about talking nakarins - a nakarin being a rather spherical amphibian known for rolling and bouncing around and eating farmers' crops.

"Is this what I'm reduced to?"

\---

An hour later, she stared at the screen intently, "Since when have they been putting competent literary references in kids' shows...?"

As she navigated to the next episode, she noticed the time in the bottom right corner of the screen. She stared at it for a moment, sure she was forgetting something.

It was...

"OH SHIT, I HAVE CLASS IN FIVE MINUTES!" She bolted off the couch, letting the blanket slump on it and the floor. She put on jeans and a t-shirt, grabbed her backpack and guitar case, and ran out of her apartment, nearly knocking her coffee machine over.

Once outside, she zoomed off to Kisamora, through the halls, and only stopped once at a desk in her Physics classroom. Papers and hair flew around in her wake.

Kritel, at the front of the classroom, just glared at her, half-lidded, and adjusted her own sweater, "Seriously, Melkash? Seriously?"

Mel, panting, just let out a wheezy "Sorry!" a few times.

"Right, well, as I was saying..." Kritel continued the beginning of the lecture, but Mel found it difficult to pay attention. She was rather disoriented by her big rush, after all.

She ended up thinking mostly about how great her friends were. She was glad to be able to give Kese some friendship that she seemed to really need. She hasn't said anything about it, but Mel was pretty sure that she and Nomori were Kese's only friends right now. Mel had trouble imagining that kind of loneliness, but hey, if she could help Kese get out of that hole, that was great, as far as she was concerned. And Nomori - well, Mel loved her as ever. It occurred to her that this whole thing was kind of ironic, that Mel was able to help Kese date Nomori, but couldn't even budge herself in that direction.

This train of thought was interrupted by something she saw out of the corner of her eye, to her left. She looked in that direction, and saw the classroom windows, blinds open, people outside, beyond the short, flowering hedges, walking this way and that in the morning sun. She looked behind herself, at other students who were actually listening to Kritel and taking notes.

She saw something in the corner of her eye again, this time to her right. She looked outside again, and saw a brown-skinned, blue-haired boy. She almost knocked over her desk, scrambling to get out of her seat. He was gone. She was wide-eyed and sweating. Everyone was looking at her now.

Kritel said, "Melkash, is something wrong?"

Mel looked around the classroom. She lingered on the two psychic students in the room, and then on Kritel. "Which one of you mind-fuckers did that!?"

Kritel froze and narrowed her mouth. "Melkash Kersath, that was incredibly uncalled for!"

"I SAW MY DEAD BROTHER, WHICH ONE OF YOU DID THAT!?" She frantically looked between the three psychics in the room. Even their pink hair started to make her afraid.

"I certainly did nothing of the sort, and I'm sure neither Galeri nor Deras did it either. I didn't even know you _had_ a brother, Melkash! Anyways, even if I wanted to, I'm certainly not powerful enough to overcome your natural resistance -"

Mel flipped her table, grabbed her stuff and stormed out of the room - quite literally, with tiny lightning bolts coming from her every which way, as if she were a storm cloud.

After a moment, Kritel clapped her hands together and said, "Alright, people, let's take a ten minute break, after that."

Mel quickly walked down the halls of the college, grumbling. If it wasn't any of them, then who was it? Kritel could have just been lying - psychics could be real good at fooling people, after all. Even without their powers. But she'd never acted suspiciously, to Mel's knowledge. Mel _did_ see the images outside. Maybe someone was out there? The blinds were open, after all. But at that point it could've been any old psychic! An entire eight percent or so of the population of a city of several million. That was way too many-

Suddenly, some of the lights went out, flickering. Mel picked up her pace for a second, but then more lights went out. It was so dark - it was that damn labyrinth! Mel's heart skipped a beat. No, it wasn't. Her surroundings began to look warped, like a staticky image of that dark, abandoned office building overlaid on the well-lit hallways of Kisamora College.

"Y-you can't fool me like that! I'm electric!" She ran ahead and looked down a corner, only to see the vague, staticky image of a pink-haired psychic. She screamed and let loose a large bolt of lightning towards the phantom. Thunder boomed down the halls. In her mind, she heard a voice that sounded like it was coming through a voice modulator and over a bad internet connection: _I don't need to fool you._

Mel could hear other voices now, but they were muffled. Some vague person-like shapes behind the psychic. She couldn't really make them out all that well, with the static. The psychic walked towards her. She shouted out and let loose another lightning bolt.

There was a scream, a cry of pain clear as the most horrifying bell. Mel heard a laugh over the bad connection as it and the static faded away. The psychic walking towards her was nothing. But there was a crowd of other students further away. And in that crowd was Shira, who collapsed on the floor with severe electrical burns and a ruined gown. The rest of the crowd was a mix of horrified and furious. Several students grabbed Shira, and took her away, presumably to get her medical attention. The rest of the crowd charged at Mel.

Mel ran.

She was, of course, too fast for most of them, but there was one electric guy who kept up not far behind as the two of them zipped through the halls and outside the college. Out on the street, he jumped at her, and just barely grabbed a hold of her backpack. With all their speed, the two of them crashed and tumbled together down the street, acquiring not a few scrapes and bruises. He tried to hold her down, but she fought back with the ferocity of fear, kicking and biting and clawing until she could squirm out and run away again, this time leaving him behind.

She ran and ran, cars, people, buildings, and trees all blurred past her and she eventually stumbled to a stop, panting and crying, and she slinked into an alleyway. After she slumped against the wall, her first thought was to check her guitar. She opened the case and found it to be just fine. The case was as sturdy as always. Though, she supposed she wouldn't be going to music class today. Next, she took out her phone from her backpack and hesitated for a moment, looking at the holo-display, as a few people walked by, paying her no mind.  Then she peeked out of the alleyway to look at the street signs, and shot out a couple of texts - one to Nomori, and one to Kese, giving only her location. She shut down her phone completely and put it back in her backpack, and waited.

And cried. She just couldn't hold it all in, so she sobbed, loudly, sitting in this alleyway between a bakery and a tailor's shop.

\---

Nomori and Kese arrived a couple hours later, and rushed over to Mel when they saw her. She wasn't crying anymore, just slumping over.

The two of them helped Mel up, and Kese said, "Mel, look at all these nicks! Have you just been sitting out here with all that? C'mon, we need to get you cleaned and bandaged!"

Mel continued to be slumped over, looking at the ground, even as Kese and Nomori guided her out of the alleyway. She said, "It was them."

"What, who?"

"They're in the college."

Nomori said, "Mel, what are you talking about?"

"They killed my brother, and now they're finally back, hunting me down to finish the job."

Kese's eyes went wide, "Wh-what!?"

Nomori looked off at nothing, "Oh, Hale. Are - are you sure, Mel?"

Mel said, "You heard what happened earlier, right?"

"About Shira? Yeah..."

"Fucker was in my head. Freaking me out. I was scared for my life! I didn't know she was there!"

Kese said, "Wait, but you're -"

"If I _wasn't_ electric, I probably wouldn't even have known I was being fucked with! And even then, they still got to me. That's the level of power we're dealing with, here."

"So, it was a psychic who killed your brother?"

"Yeah. Don't know anything about them except that they're psychic. Age? Build? Gender? Nothing - but a vague sense of pink hair. Everything else is a blur."

"Oh, no. No, no, no! No! This - no!"

Nomori said, "Kese?"

"I - let me explain..."

\---

30N-03-10023.

Kese walked down the sidewalk on a clear, sunny day. As a growing child of ten virui, she was somehow both chubby _and_ gangly. It was late afternoon - she was walking home from school. All around her were tall apartment buildings, and she heard a noise in the alley between two of them. The shadows of the buildings obscured what was going on down there, so she walked in, to find out.

Death. A child. A psychic. Suddenly, pulling - the psychic's telekinesis. Kese flew, trying to get away. It was all she could do to keep herself from being pulled in further. She screamed. Footsteps around the corner. Shouting. A sharp pain in Kese's brain, and then the psychic - and the body - were gone. She flew off like a slingshot, past the people who were coming to her aid, and flew away and away, screaming the whole time.

\---

15N-03-10031.

"So," said Mel, "you think this might be the same person, then?"

Kese said, "Yeah..."

"They're hunting both of us down, then."

"Yeah, I think so."

"Dragonfood! Fuck, we're dragonfood! This is it!"

Nomori hugged Mel's arm, "No we're not. We just.. we have to do something about this! Are we not maja? Weren't you going on about that yesterday, at the arena? We're fighting this. Even if we die, we're not going down without a fight!"

Kese said, "You know, this is why I'm studying law. I wanna put monsters like that away. I'm not really a fighter... but this is basically my whole purpose, right now."

"See, Mel? I think we can do this, the three of us."

The three of them were silent for a moment before Mel said, "Maybe. But I can't go back to Kisamora. Pretty sure everyone's gonna wanna knock me out on sight and tie me up or something, until they can get some investigators in."

Kese said, "Well, with the psychic interference, they're the one ultimately at fault, not you. But it's also inherently difficult to prove, since the only real testimony would be from you and the culprit, who I imagine isn't going to show up for that. And you're electric, which makes it an even harder case. They'd probably rather believe you're lying or severely mentally ill than that there's a highly powerful psychic serial killer on the loose at a two-viru college. I mean, many judges are psychic themselves, they might be kinda biased against believing this - it is, after all, the sort of thing assholes on powerist websites think every psychic is secretly doing. Those shitheads would jump all over this." Kese paused and looked away, "Um, sorry. That was a lot of words."

"No, no, it's fine, Kese. This is your thing. Get a conversation on the topic of music and I'll go on for hours. And don't get me started on Nomori's boring engineering tirades."

Nomori said, "Mel, seriously? What the fuck?"

"Nomori. You're my best friend in the whole universe. But that computer shit goes right over my head." Mel smiled softly, "You know that."

"Mel, is it really the time for this!?"

Mel looked away and to the ground, "Just wanted to lighten the mood a bit..."

Nomori sighed, "I'm sorry. Just - maybe try something not at my expense? Today's been bad enough all too suddenly, as it is. I'm - I'm a little on edge right now."

Mel grimaced, "Shit, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I -"

"No, no, I suppose I can't really blame you for being disoriented today -"

"But I don't wanna fuck up anymore, today! Once was entirely more than enough!"

Kese spoke up, "Um, hey. This is, uh, nice, and all, but, uh - can we actually get something done?"

Mel clicked her tongue, "Kese's right. This is dumb. You two go back to Kisamora and check things out. I'll..."

Nomori said, "Mel, they locked down the college. Instructors and students are combing the area for you. And..." Nomori took her phone out of her purse and showed off a System Announcement concerning Mel. It was a warrant for her capture. The System was a gigantic computer network that handled the automation of many aspects of life in the Maja Empire. It could generate warrants for capture if enough people submitted complaints about someone's criminal activity.

"Shit. I can't go to my apartment. First fucking place they'll look for me. Dragons, they probably already have people there. I'd ask to go to your place, Nomori, but I bet that's another place they'll keep an eye on. Shit, shit! I can't trust anyone! Anyone on the street could realize who I am and come after me. I can't keep fighting all day! I can't even go buy any kaloi juice! The System will ping me! Fuck!" Mel fell to her knees. "What am I gonna do!?"

"Kese, get her out of sight while I go right over here..." Nomori headed into the tailor's shop and bought a pre-made, long-sleeve black shirt with an intricate blue design on it, for a hundred credits - expensive, but she needed something right now. She brought it with her, back into the alley, and had Mel replace her usual white t-shirt with it. Then, Nomori took a hair tie out of her purse and put Mel's hair in a ponytail, and then she took her cat eye sunglasses out and put them on Mel.

"This... isn't really much of a disguise, Nomori."

Kese said, "It should be fine for avoiding the attention of random strangers. We should probably get you a hat, too, though."

Nomori said, "I agree, but the tailor didn't have any, so this should do for now. And even if she did have one, a hundred credits is quite enough."

Mel looked at Nomori, slack-jawed. "A hundred credits!? Why're you -"

"It's an emergency, Me- no. We gotta call you something else. Oh! I know! Shiny! Heeey, Shiny! Hahahaha!"

"Oh, Hale. You haven't called me that in _ages_."

Kese said, "Huh? What's that about?"

"Oh, yeah. Uh... Kajan and I collected shiny things, when he was alive. So, Nomori used to call me Shiny. But to be fair, I called her by a different name back then, too."

Nomori narrowed her eyes at Mel.

"I wasn't actually gonna say it! Hale, c'mon, Nomori, what do you think I am, here? I wouldn't do that to you!"

Kese blinked at them and said, "..Huh?"

Nomori groaned and said, "She's talking about my deadname, Kese."

"Dead? What?"

"My old name! You know, the one my parents gave me! Before I started transitioning!"

"Oh! Sorry, sorry. I'm sorry."

Mel took Nomori's shoulders and started massaging them, "Heeeey, Nomori. Nomori. C'mon. Don't yell. Please."

Nomori gritted her teeth, but then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I lost myself for a moment there. Like I said, today got very difficult, very suddenly."

"Hey, you don't need to lose it over me. I'll manage, right?"

"...I'm afraid I might. _I_ was always the persecuted one. Seeing that shifted to you might make me..."

Mel hugged Nomori. "Hey. Kese. Get in on this hugging action."

Kese hugged Nomori. "I don't know what's wrong, but I'm here for you!"

Nomori put her arms around both of them. "...Thanks."

A few moments of this passed.

Then, Mel said, "Alright. Let's figure something out."

***


	7. 16N-03-10031

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kandro City Shuffle, now with 3x the attempted murder!

16N-03-10031.

Nomori, Mel, and Kese were in the lobby of a small hotel on the other side of Kandro City. Small enough where there wasn't even a receptionist - just a computer to sign in on. Nomori prodded at the holo screen on the wall until she successfully bought a room, at which point a keycard came out of a slot. Then the three of them headed up to their new room, 223. All of them looked somewhat disheveled, and had slight bags under their eyes - none of them slept, having walked the whole way there straight through the night. Mel couldn't use the city's portal network without getting caught, and Nomori didn't want to leave her alone, out in the city.

"Only two beds?" asked Mel.

Nomori said, "There are only a few three-bed rooms here, and they're all taken. I'm sure we can work something out."

"Well, I guess the obvious thing would be for you two to share a bed, since you're dating and all.."

"Um," said Kese, "but it was only one date... You two know eachother a lot better than I know either of you!"

Mel and Nomori looked at eachother briefly, and then Kese, and then off in different directions.

"Uhhhh..." Kese looked down and fidgeted with one of the buttons on her gray dress shirt. Her beige bangs obscured her eyes.

The three of them just stood there like this for a few moments before Nomori said, "We can figure this out later. C'mon, Kese, we need to go shopping."

Mel asked, "Hey, what about me?"

"You stay here, Shiny. Let's not take any unnecessary risks. Don't let anyone in, if you can help it."

Mel sighed, "What am I, a child?"

"You're a wanted woman."

Mel slumped over and groaned, "Fine."

\---

Nomori and Kese walked on the sidewalk, away from the delivery depot and back towards the hotel. Nomori carried a large cardboard box in her right arm, full of the food she ordered. And she had on a black cap. Kese was at her left. There were various other people walking ahead and behind, and some hovercars going by on the street. The sun was just about directly above.

"Uh, hey, Nomori?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, uh, there was something I was wondering.."

"What is it?"

"Uhhh, about you and Me- I mean, Shiny."

Nomori's eyes widened and she looked away, "What - what about us?"

Kese fiddled with the hem of her shirt for a moment before speaking, "So, you and her have known eachother since you were kids. You seem real close. How come you two haven't gone out or anything?"

Nomori stopped. Kese got a couple steps ahead before stopping and looking back. Somebody walked between them, in the other direction. Nomori started walking again, more slowly this time, and Kese followed alongside her.

"Kese, she wouldn't wanna be with me. I'm her normal. She wants something new, all the time."

"You sure about that?"

"Well, yeah. She's had so many partners over the virui. I don't even know how many. Clearly, she wants variety, not the same old, same old."

"What about you, then? Sounds like you've thought about this before. Do, uh - do _you_ wanna be with her?"

"Kese, isn't this a really weird line of questioning to someone you're dating?"

"No, I don't think so. I'd be dating multiple girls if I wasn't so anxious about anything social..."

Nomori chuckled, "I guess you're right. Shiny talks about polyamory a lot."

"So, if you're okay with it, she could have you - _and_ variety on the side."

"Yeah..."

"And - you didn't answer my question."

"Oh, uh... Yeah. I love her. B-but don't think our date didn't mean anything - I really like you, too. Honestly, you haven't known us that long, but you're willing to stick with her even through this. I think that shows who you really are."

Kese looked down, smiled, blushed, and fiddled with her hem again, "Aaaah, it's - it's really no problem, I mean - I really think it's the same killer, the timeframes match up -"

"Kese, you don't need to justify being a good person."

"But - I mean, I think it's kinda selfish of me, but you two - you're my only friends right now. If I abandoned you, I'd be back where I was before I met Shiny. I'd be all alone again, hidden behind my sisters..."

Nomori locked arms with Kese, "It's not selfish to want to be with your friends. Especially if you have nowhere else to turn. Maja are social creatures. We need eachother. Is it selfish to want to eat, because you're hungry? To sleep, because you're tired? No. It isn't. Just like those, friends are something we need to live. We can't survive, being alone. Loneliness does things to your head. Bad things. Especially when others are forcing it on you."

"Oh, uh, you...?"

"Let's just say that Shiny got me through some tough times. If it wasn't for her - I dunno what I woulda become. I don't wanna know. But I still imagine it, sometimes, regardless."

Nomori was wincing. Kese hugged her arm. Nomori leaned into the hug, which more amounted to leaning _over_ Kese, given the height difference. She used the opportunity to give Kese a kiss on the head.

\---

Mel, Nomori, and Kese sat on the floor of their hotel room, eating a late lunch. Mel wore the black hat now, and had a chicken greenbun, chicken encased by that tangy greenbread, which kept the chicken from being bland, and added a nice crunch. Nomori splurged a bit for herself and got some bolkash sausage, imported from the continent of Kanshar. It was juicy, and spicy of its own accord, from the many kinds of grasses and bushes eaten by bolkashes, which were these roughly cow-sized, dark green, sort of hippopotamus-like animals with big tusks. Kese had some sour cream and onion chips, and crunched along with Mel.

"So," said Nomori, "we still need to figure out our sleeping arrangements. Best to get it done _before_ it's time for bed. I think I'll just sleep on the floor. I'm a big girl. I can handle it."

"Nomoni!" said Mel, with some bun in her mouth. She crunched a few times and swallowed hard, then continued, "Don't you sleep on the floor for my sake! _I'll_ sleep on the floor. I got us into this mess. It's the least I can do for you two for dragging you into this."

"Bullshit! You didn't drag us, we followed of our own accord! And it's not your fault, Shiny! How many times do I gotta say that??"

"Well, someone's gotta sleep on the floor!"

Kese said, "Nobody has to sleep on the floor. You two just cuddle up together!"

Nomori and Mel could hardly get any words out, "Woah - now hold on - hey - Kese, look - woah, hey - Kese - seriously, what?"

"Dear Hale, how can you two be so oblivious!? I just don't understand how you two utter DORKS can have known eachother for so long and NOT HAVE NOTICED!"

Mel said, "K-kese, what are you -"

Kese stood up, "JUST KISS ALREADY!!"

Nomori and Mel blushed and looked at eachother, then back to Kese, who was panting, then back to eachother again.

"I can't believe that I, of all people, have to be the one to inform you of this, but you two complete morons have been in love with eachother for virui!"

Nomori said, "...Seriously?"

Mel looked at Nomori, and then looked away sheepishly, "Yeah..."

"Kese, you're right. We have to be the dumbest people on Tol Maja - no, in the _whole Empire_ right now!"

Mel and Nomori looked at eachother and laughed. Then there was a moment of silence before Nomori grabbed Mel by the head and kissed her.

Kese sat back down, smiling.

\---

A few hours later, all three of them were laying on one of the beds, perpendicular to it. Kese and Nomori had their phones out, and were checking social media. Mel just stared at the ceiling.

A few more moments passed.

Mel said, "I'm bored. No screen in here, can't use my phone..."

Kese said, "I could play a movie on mine, if you want."

"Aaagh, no! I can't stay cooped up in here all the time!" Mel got up and headed for the door. "I'm going for a walk."

Nomori and Kese got up. Nomori sighed and said, "Well, if you really have to, I'm coming along."

Kese said, "I really don't wanna be alone in an unfamiliar part of the city, so I'll come too."

They all went outside, and then Nomori took Kese's hand in her left, and Mel's in her right. "I'll take this opportunity to show the world that I have two girlfriends, now!" They started walking down the sidewalk, shops on either side of the street. It was late afternoon.

Kese said, "Gee, Nomori, how come your mom lets you have _two_ girlfriends?"

Mel just blinked at Kese, though nobody could see it under her sunglasses. Nomori snickered, "Wow, that's an old one. Pretty sure that's older than me."

"Eheh, well, uh. I just. I like vintage memes, okay?"

Mel said, "You say 'vintage' like you're talking about music, or wine, not some internet garbage."

"It's the choicest of trash!"

"How would you even know about that stuff... I guess you _would_ be spending all day on a computer or something without us, huh?"

"Well, yeah..."

Nomori said, "C'mon, Shiny, don't needle her for that."

Mel said, "I'm just recalling, Nomori, how I sometimes had to literally pull you away from your computer when we were in high school. I just feel like I need to keep people away from that kinda thing."

Kese said, "There's nothing wrong with computers, or the internet..."

"Yeah, of course, but, like, sitting there in your room, on your computer, every waking moment you're not at school or work, is - it's a sign you need help. I'm really glad you managed to drum up the courage to talk to me, Kese. I'm not letting you go. Just like I didn't let go of Nomori."

"Oh, um. Thanks..?"

Nomori chuckled, "Look at Shiny, acting like she's saving us from ourselves."

Mel said, "Well, less from yourselves and more from what other people made you into."

Nomori winced. "Yeah."

Nomori made sure to block line of sight to Mel from passersby whenever possible. However, there was one man who walked directly towards them. He was a physical maja, so his hair was the same colour as his skin - a light brown. He was also big - as tall as Nomori and absolutely chiseled, which was on display for all to see, as he wasn't wearing a shirt. He looked at Mel and said, "Hey, you!"

The three of them froze. Kese went wide-eyed. Nomori narrowed her eyes at the man. Mel looked at him, emotion obscured by her sunglasses and the shade of her hat. She said, "Whadd _you_ want?"

"You look like - are you Melkash Kersath?"

"No, you fucking imbecile, do I _look_ like an attempted murderer, here out having a nice, peaceful walk with my girlfriends!?"

"Then what's your name?"

"Krozu." The Imperial Maja word for 'storm', and a rather common name for electric women.

"Line?"

"Why should I tell you my line name, when you're accosting me on the street like this, lookin' like you're gonna start a fight!? I have a right to privacy, you know!"

Mel and this man stood staring at eachother for several moments. With a name like Krozu, he'd have to search for hours through the tens of thousands of electric women in Kandro City with that name to confirm her identity. Not exactly how he wanted to spend the rest of his day. He grunted and pushed past Mel.

A moment later, Kese said, "G-girlfriends? Plural?"

Mel said, "Yeah, that's what I said."

"You - you want to be my girlfriend, too?"

"I mean, why not? I _do_ think you're pretty adorable."

Kese blushed and fiddled with her buttons.

Nomori said, "So, that makes it a triangle! That's the strongest shape, you know."

Mel said, "Oh, hey, engineering actually came up with something nice!"

Nomori narrowed her eyes at Mel, but smiled, and lightly pushed her. Both of them laughed.

The three women continued walking together as the commercial area turned into residential, and the sun continued lowering behind them, to the east. It was about halfway between midday and sunset. Mel leaned to her left to get a look at something ahead. She said, "Oh, hey, there's a vending machine up ahead. I'm gonna go see if I can smack something out of it." Then she let go of Nomori's hand and zoomed over to the vending machine in the alley. She hit it, trying to get it to drop a can of juice without her having to pay.

Suddenly, Kozoma showed up, turning the far corner of the alley, holding a piece of paper in her hands. She walked a few steps towards Mel. Her red ponytail rippled as she jumped slightly when she realized who it was. "Oh, hey! Mel! Didn't think I'd see _you_ around here! I was just visiting my cousin."

Mel jumped and went wide-eyed at Kozoma, "Shit! What do _you_ want? You here to take me? I'm warning you, I won't hold back if you fight me!"

"C'mon, do I look like I care about Shira? Relaaaax, Mel. Or don't I guess, since I have something here that should _really_ get you all riled up!"

"What the fuck are you talking about? What, you're just announcing that you're trying to troll me, now?"

"Hey, can't say I'm not honest about what I want!"

"Well, I don't really care, so I'm just gonna get this kaloi juice-"

Kozoma revealed the printed side of the paper to Mel - a picture of Kajan.

Mel froze. The labyrinth replayed in her mind - she grit her teeth and started shaking - and the corpse of her brother haunted her again. But this time - this was it. This was enough. The last straw. This was the third time in only a few days she'd been triggered, and she was already on edge from being hunted and not having slept, and - Kozoma. She had no way of reacting, Mel was too fast. Her hands were around Kozoma's head, and she screamed, pumping as much electricity in there as she could. Kozoma's cries joined hers in a duet of agony.

Nomori and Kese sprinted up to the alley. Kese stayed back, hands up to her mouth, while Nomori entered the alley at a full run. Seeing this before her - it brought back some of her own memories.

\---

55J-05-10027.

An early evening heavy rain drowned out Nomori's sobbing as the brown-haired rock boy in front of her continued to berate her. 'Forest barbarian', 'tree-fucker', 'compost', and more, he was bringing out every slur for plant maja in existence. It was nothing she hadn't experienced before, in her five virui of high school. But this was her last viru, and graduation wasn't that far off. It'd only been a matter of time until she broke. The boy knew that, and he planned to exploit it. He lifted her chin to see her face, red and striped by tears, "...And you're lucky I'm around to give you something to do, useless bitch."

Once he'd finished breaking her down... he could rebuild her however he wanted. This thought occurred to Nomori, as well. As horrible as virui of emotional abuse had been, she could see in his eyes that he wanted to do even worse things to her, and she stopped crying. One last shred of self-preservation swelled up in her, and she shook. And she screamed. And for a moment, she was a dragon. She took him in her vines, and held them as tightly as she could. He squirmed and struggled, but before he could do much to try and escape, another vine was around his neck. She squeezed that one the hardest, pumping virui of anger into it. All the times she wanted to lash out but couldn't. Now she was. His squirming stopped as he focused entirely on trying not to be strangled, but she just kept screaming, and she looked right into his brown eyes, to examine well his last moments of -

Mel tackled her, gave her a shock - just enough to make her release the boy, who promptly ran.

\---

16N-03-10031.

Nomori tackled Mel, and between her own strength and the force of her run, they slammed into the vending machine. Nomori got off of Mel, but left vines in her wake, which Mel struggled against. Kozoma held her head, full of frizzled hair, and groaned.

Nomori was the first to speak, "Kozoma, what did you do?"

"The fuck you mean what did I do? She was gonna kill me! Just like she tried to kill Shira! Fucking insane murderer!"

"And you did something to provoke her! What was it!?"

"Agh, some psychic gave me a picture -"

Nomori looked down to the image of Kajan on the floor, swept it into her hand with a vine, and crumpled it. "Some psychic?"

"Ffffuck. I don't remember. This bitch fried my brain! I don't remember!"

"Kozoma, just shut the fuck up and get out of here."

"This fuckin' unstable addlebrain tried to kill me! I'm not letting her get away with that!" She took one step forward, and then a large vine blocked her way. She looked Nomori right in the eyes, her red to Nomori's green, and said, "What the fuck do you think you can do to _me_ , compost!? I'm fire, you're plant, I win!"

Nomori screamed, released Mel, and tackled Kozoma to the ground, with her hands around Kozoma's neck. Kozoma opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

"CAN'T BREATHE FIRE IF YOU CAN'T _BREATHE_!"

Mel came to her senses and got up, holding her head. She saw Kozoma twitching under Nomori, the fear of death in her eyes. She leapt on top of Nomori and delivered a shock. Nomori kept screaming. Wide-eyed, Kozoma crawled out from under them, then wheezed and stumbled her way back around the alley corner she came from. Nomori screamed and clawed at the pavement as Mel held her down. She slammed her hand on some grass growing out of a crack and made a tree branch rake at Kozoma as she stumbled past. Kozoma screamed and ran. Nomori continued like this for a few moments, getting her arms all scraped in the process. Eventually the screams turned into sobs, and she curled up in Mel's arms.

Mel and Nomori huddled in the alley, sobbing. Kese cried too, though quietly. She went over to the other two and hugged them.

They did eventually get up and walk back the way they came. They did so without words, but there was the occasional sob or whimper.

\---

The sun was setting by the time they got back to the hotel. They went up the stairs, and over to room 223. They all flopped onto one bed together and held eachother tightly as they fell asleep.

***


	8. 17N-03-10031

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooo, finally got this episode done! It took quite a while. It's the longest one so far, by far, and various things throughout the past month conspired to keep me out of the mood to write. But I'm back in the game! Enjoy!

17N-03-10031.

Nomori awoke to a knock on the door of the hotel room. She was in Mel and Kese's arms. They were still asleep. There was another knock. Nomori slid out of her girlfriends' arms and looked at her phone. It was around midday. Considering the lack of sleep they all had two nights ago, she wasn't surprised they slept this long. Another knock - harder, more impatient. Nomori went and opened the door. There were two people there, each in a trenchcoat. A long-, yellow-haired electric woman, and a short, cyan-haired ice man. Nomori looked at them with a hollow, groggy gaze and said, "What - who the fuck?"

The electric woman showed a golden-hued ID card with the red Phoenix Insignia on it, and said, "Kejiya Haranelsa, Imperial Investigations Division."

The man held up a similar card and said, "Kazuno Geranos."

Nomori's eyes went wide. "The fuck do you want??"

Kejiya said, "Nomori Anzakam, you and Melkash Kersath over there are under arrest for the attempted murders of Shira Turani and Kozoma Anthalai. You gonna come quietly?"

Nomori shook, and her right eye twitched. She screamed and slammed the door in their faces, stepped back, grabbed the unoccupied bed with her vines, and slammed it against the door. This whole racket pretty much immediately woke up Mel and Kese, who were wide-eyed and slack-jawed. Nomori turned her entire arms into various large vines and slammed them against the opposite wall and window. They crashed through, creating a way out. Then she grabbed Mel and Mel's stuff with the vines and used another vine to latch on to the nearby tree outside to swing down to the ground. Kese flew after her.

Mel said, "Nomori! What is going on!?"

"Investigators!"

"Aw, fuck!"

Nomori let go of Mel, gave her her stuff back, and the three of them started running across the small, nearly empty parking lot. "Fuckin' Kozoma must have reported what happened yesterday! Dragonfuckers are after me, too!"

They didn't even get halfway across before Kejiya zoomed in, tackling Nomori to the pavement. Kejiya was rearing up to punch Nomori, and Mel was about to jump on them when vines erupted from all over Nomori and wrapped around Kejiya. Nomori sat up, getting right in her assailant's face, and smiled. She laughed, "That was _pathetic_!"

Kejiya struggled against the vines as Nomori stood up, spun around once completely, and retracted her vines to fling Kejiya at the wall of the hotel. Kejiya slammed into it with enough force to crack it slightly. She slumped onto the pavement and groaned. She was in the process of getting up as Nomori approached. Nomori's green sundress had various holes in it now, from all the vines she just retracted. She slapped Kejiya's face with a vine, knocking her back down. Kejiya tried to get up again and was met with a vine to the other side of her face.

Nomori said, "Is this what passes for an investigator, these days!? I coulda beaten you in high school!!"

Kejiya tried to get up again, and Nomori slapped her down again.

Mel said, "Nomori! What the fuck are you doing!?"

Nomori turned her head to look at Mel, "What does it _look_ like I'm doing!?"

"It looks like you're being cruel for no reason! What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

"Mel, I need to show people what it means to mess with me!"

Mel's brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed. She mouthed, "What?"

Meanwhile, Kazuno had finally swung around to the other side of the parking lot, the women none the wiser. He spotted Kese hiding behind a car, squatted beside her, and asked, "Have these two hurt you?"

She screamed and ran from him. He watched her for a split second and flattened his mouth before heading into the fray.

Nomori said, "We can't just keep having people on our asses all the time! If we show them we mean business - Mel! Watch -"

Kazuno came up behind Mel and made for a tackle, too soon to actually grab her. But that wasn't his intent. She was able to just slightly move out of the way, so only her left foot got frozen to the pavement. While she struggled to pull her foot out, Nomori said, "You bastard!" And whipped a vine towards Kazuno. He froze the air around it, forming a chunk of ice on the end, making it fall to the ground before hitting him. Nomori was yanked by this and nearly fell over. Mel fired a small bolt of electricity at Kazuno, who yelped and rolled away into a kip up. Kejiya tackled Nomori - this time with a shock. Nomori grunted and retracted the vine. The chunk of ice was now around her right hand. She bashed Kejiya in the face with it. Kazuno formed a shield of ice on his left arm and blocked a barrage of lightning from Mel. Kejiya held on to Nomori and delivered repeated shocks. Nomori screamed and had spasms.

Then Kese showed up and blew some dirt and dust in Kazuno's face. He coughed and recoiled in surprise, giving Mel an opening. She gave him a shock to the side - and it was strong enough to just knock him out.

Nomori continued screaming and struggling against Kejiya's shocks. She couldn't properly control her muscles to hit Kejiya again, the few vines she'd managed to extend were flimsy, and she could only control them erratically. In her screaming, she managed to get one word out - "MEL!"

Mel couldn't fire any electricity at Kejiya without also hitting Nomori - not that it would have done much to Kejiya, regardless. So she focused on trying to get her foot free. She shot bolts at the ice, but they were small. She was faltering. It took her a few tries to crack the ice. Nomori was still getting shocked. Kejiya said, "Why won't you go down!? How fucking tough are you!?"

Mel tried to shock the ice again. Just sparks. She said, "Fuck!" and just yanked her foot a couple times, groaning in pain - first extending the cracks, then freeing her foot. She stumbled a bit, but kept upright, then she tackled Kejiya, at a normal run, and headbutted her, which made her hat fall off. Kejiya let go of Nomori, who promptly whipped her with a properly big vine and fell over. Kese rushed over to her to try and catch her, but this only resulted in her falling onto Kese. Both of them groaned. Nomori was bruised all over.

Mel and Kejiya were on the ground, wrestling. They punched eachother a few times. Both of them had bruises, too, and Kejiya had some cuts as well.  Mel managed to shove Kejiya off of her and start running, just as Nomori and Kese were getting up. The three of them ran, though not with as much vigour as they might have preferred.

Kejiya got up and lurched forward, making herself fall over again. She grunted when she hit the pavement. She was drained, too. "Dragonfood!" She didn't bother giving chase, without her powers, and with her partner unconscious.

Mel, Nomori, and Kese ran for several blocks before slumping against the wall of an alley.

Then they took some time to catch their breath. Mel shook. Nomori stared off up at the sky. Kese sobbed a few times.

Finally, Mel grabbed Nomori by the collar and looked her right in the eyes. "What in the name of Hale is wrong with you?"

Nomori looked away.

"Say something!"

Nomori pulled Mel's hands off of her tattered dress with ease, and moved a bit further into the shadow of the alley to lean on the wall again. She continued not looking at either of them.

Kese went and leaned beside her, and held her hand. "Nomori, talk to us. We can't help you if you don't tell us what's wrong."

Nomori took her hand out of Kese's. "I'm a monster. You two should just leave me."

Mel grabbed Nomori's arm and pulled her out of the alley. "Ohhhhhh no! Not _this_ again! We are in too much trouble for you to just wallow in self-pity all day while the rest of us try to get us out of this mess!"

Nomori finally looked at Mel, grimacing. "Look, Mel, I -"

"Nomori. I fucking love you, and I'm very disappointed in you, and I'm out of patience! Just get yourself together! Force it if you need to! We don't have time for this shit!"

Nomori winced and looked down. She remained silent.

"Oh, whatever, come on!" Mel grabbed Nomori's arm and pulled her along, down the street.

Kese followed. "Mel, can't we at least talk this out on the way to - where are we going?"

"We're going to the portal station."

"What!? B-but you'll get pinged!"

"We already have the attention of investigators! We don't have time! We need to get back to Kisamora and find out who the killer is!"

Nomori yanked her arm out of Mel's hand and stopped, head down. Mel turned to look at her. She raised her head, and her green brow was furrowed. "The fuck you think you're gonna do, like this!?"

Mel went wide-eyed.

"You're drained of power, and you can barely jog, you idiot! And you're just gonna waltz through a portal in the middle of the fucking afternoon!? Just think about this for one second!!"

"Nomori..."

"Nomori _what!?_ Huh!? Didn't you tell me to get my fucking act together!?" She made an exaggerated sweeping gesture, "Well here it is!"

"Not like this-"

"This is what you're getting!" Nomori grabbed Mel's arm and pulled her along. Kese followed. "We're finding somewhere to rest!"

After a couple moments of walking, a bright orange-haired man, an energy maja, put out a hand to stop them. he said, "Hey, aren't you-"

Nomori got right up in his face, looking down at him, as she was taller, and said, "Do I look like I have the time for your bullshit!?"

He looked away slightly, licked his lips, and grimaced. Then he walked into the nearby store.

Nomori continued pulling Mel along, and picked up the pace. She turned on a side street. "Kese, where's the nearest park?"

"Oh, um, uh - phone. Um." Kese pulled her phone out of her pocket and brought up the map app. "Um, th-there's a park on - Kartola and 47th. A-a few blocks ahead."

Nomori led her girlfriends towards that park. Kese looked at the ground the whole time, as she followed. Mel looked off to the side. It was a large, forested park. Exactly what Nomori wanted. She led them in on the trail, but quickly diverted off of it, deeper into the park. It was shaded, and had that familiar forest scent.

As they were all walking through the forest, Kese said, "So we're really hiding out here?"

Nomori said, "Until tonight, at least. Should give us enough time to rest. Even if people know we're here - which they shouldn't - who's gonna go up against a plant maja in the forest?"

Mel said, "Another plant maja?"

"Well - yeah. I guess. But I'll show 'em!"

"You can't have that much left in you, right?"

Nomori sputtered and grumbled, then looked away.

"You could use some sleep just as much as I could."

"Okay, fine. Yeah. I'm fucking tired. I was woken up not two hours ago, and I'm already fucking exhausted! Hale, we're gonna have spent most of this day sleeping."

Kese said, "What are you gonna sleep on? I mean, you can't just sleep on the dirt... right?"

"I'll put together some hammocks. Dragons, that'll probably take all I have left."

Mel said, "By the way, you two - turn off your phones."

Kese took out her phone and shut it down.

Nomori said, "Do I look like I have my fucking phone!?"

"Nomori, I -"

"No! I'm a complete moron and left my bag at the hotel  in the rush like a fucking idiot! Investigators'll probably collect it as evidence or something..."  Nomori looked down at herself, and then stopped. The others followed suit a second later. "Hale's balls, will you fucking look at me!? I'm a mess! I lost my stuff and I ruined my dress, I look like - like some forest barbarian!"

Kese said, "Nomori! Don't say that about yourself!"

"I can say it as much as I fucking want, Kese! Forest barbarian, forest barbarian, compost compost compost!! That's all I am!" She leaned against a tree and started shaking, "I'm such a fucking wreck."

Mel put her hand on Nomori's shoulder, "Nomori..." She sighed, "Can we just - do this thing? Can you try to not yell at everything?"

Nomori looked off at nothing, and pursed her lips so hard they went white. "Yeah, yeah. Alright, whatever."

The three of them continued on for several more minutes, until Nomori deemed them deep enough in the park to be relatively safe. Then she grew branches from two of the trees, and leaves from those branches. She grew them and tangled them together until they formed a green hammock. She did this two more times, but during the last one, she accidentally made a big knot. "Fucking piece of shit tree, no! Stupid fucking piece of DOG SHIT! Just do as I fucking want! Hale's asshole, fucking knot! Fucking FUCK!!" She tore the hammock apart with her bare hands, screaming, and started a new one in a different place. After finishing that one, she hopped in it, grumbling.

Kese and Mel looked at eachother and hopped in their respective hammocks, saying nothing.

\---

Nomori was the first one awake. She hardly slept, as her mind kept going, just completely incapable of calming down. Having all this peace and quiet only let her dwell on how much she hated Kozoma, and those investigators, and that one guy, and everyone back in high school, and - the serial killer. Whoever they were. She just couldn't _stop it_. It pissed her off to no end - both the people themselves and her inability to just let it go for a while. She wondered how she was even able to keep this all under wraps so long. She'd already forgotten how she did it. That pissed her off, too. Why couldn't she just be a nice, friendly person? She was, for a while, even if it was just a mask. But now it eluded her. For all that she hated everyone who'd ever wronged her or her girlfriends, she hated herself more. She lay in her hammock, jaw clenched tight.

Some hours later, in the evening, not long before sunset, Kese awoke. She'd gotten some sleep. More than Nomori, though not as much as Mel was getting. She hadn't been as tired as them, having not exerted herself as much, but she'd also kept herself up like Nomori. She was sleeping in a branch hammock in the middle of a park. She was running around with her girlfriends who were being hunted down. She, too, was being hunted down by that serial killer she saw all those virui ago. And now that she was awake again, all those thoughts came rushing back. It all happened so suddenly. One day, her life was relatively normal - if a bit rocky, discovering Mel's mental illness - then everything fell apart, so suddenly, the next. She hadn't been home since the morning of the 15th. Now it was the night of the 17th. She couldn't remember if she'd ever been away from home for this long in her entire life. She missed her bed. She missed her computer. She missed her normal, daily routine. She wanted to help get herself and her girlfriends out of this mess, yes, but - she didn't really have any idea what she was doing. She was aiming to become a prosecutor, not an investigator. This wasn't a classroom or a courtroom. She was completely out of her depth. She couldn't fight worth shit. How useful was she, really, right now? She was just a scared, useless girl. The idea of just leaving the work to Mel and Nomori, getting out of their way, briefly crossed her mind. But then she'd be alone, again. In the middle of a part of town she'd never been to before. Full of people she'd never met. Well, she had her phone, so finding her way back home wouldn't be a problem, but even so, the idea of being alone again, and in an unfamiliar place, to boot, just terrified her. No matter what she did, she'd be scared. At least if she stuck with her girlfriends, there might be a time in the hopefully not too distant future where she was both not scared and not alone again. She didn't really want to think of what else might happen instead.

Mel was the last to wake up. When she did, it was night. The bridgelight didn't reach under all these trees, so she couldn't see a thing. She felt the taut branches and the soft leaves under her. She heard some leaves shuffling, and some insect calls. She raised her left hand and made some sparks flash between her fingers. She was back in the game. She'd had her doubts before, but now she was sure that the three of them would get through this. Even if she would have to drag them, kicking and screaming. Even if she was kicking and screaming, herself. She was not about to let this mess ruin their lives.

Suddenly, there was a strong light! Mel startled and fell out of her hammock. Kese said, "Oh no! I-I'm sorry, Mel! I didn't-"

Nomori said, "Why the fuck did you turn on your phone, Kese?"

"I can't see at all in this forest! A-and we're gonna get pinged at the portal station anyways, so..."

Nomori sighed, "Yeah, I guess you're right." She hopped out of her hammock, "Alright, ladies, let's get moving!"

While getting up off the ground, Mel said, "Dragons, Nomori, lemme at least stretch, fuck."

Mel stretched, and then the three of them were off. Kese led the way with her phone light, and then again with its map once they were out of the park and could see a bit by bridgelight. They exited the park in a residential area. They had to go back into the commercial area to get to the portal station. Given the time, nobody was out and about to accost them. They did see a couple people walking about, but neither of them approached.

The brightly-lit portal station was similar - a few people heading from or to portals, which were swirling purple ellipses. The machinery that generated them was embedded into the walls, on the second and third floors, which were mostly just walkways and railings beside the portals. The station was open-air on the first floor, and the portals were much larger, enough to fit a vehicle through. They were directed towards major cities on other toli, distant parts of the Empire. A drone came out of one, carrying a package, and flew off. The second and third floor's portals were only big enough for a person to walk through. The second floor was directed towards other cities on Tol Maja, while the third floor was directed towards other stations in Kandro City. Mel, Nomori, and Kese headed up the ramp to the third floor, and entered the portal labeled "Valnar-Kisamora".

The thing with portals is that while to outside observers the transition is instantaneous, to those going in, it takes about a minute to get through, regardless of the distance between both ends of the portal. So, the three of them floated through a purple void for about a minute before appearing on the other side, in an identical station. However, outside the station were the familiar, plant-strewn streets of the Valnar district, and Kisamora College, a couple blocks away. They didn't stand around taking in the view - there would be people heading towards the station to look for them, now.

But before they could get far, someone appeared out of nowhere, in front of them. Big, frizzy pink hair, and a sweater. It was Kritel, Mel's Physics instructor, teleporting in to intercept them. Mel started and yelped. Nomori grit her teeth. Kese looked between her girlfriends and Kritel.

Kritel said, "I guess, legally, I'm supposed to give you a chance to come peaceably," she lifted various rocks, and a trash can with her telekinesis, "but given that fight that was all over the news, I have a feeling you won't." And then the telekinetic barrage began. She flung objects every which way. Kese screamed and huddled into a ball. Mel zoomed around, easily dodging. Nomori brought forth her vines and slapped things away. Kritel just reused the same objects over and over, so she never really ran out. She didn't give Mel or Nomori any chance to attack, keeping them on the defensive the whole time.

Nomori yelled and said, "We don't have time for this _bullshit_ , Kritel! We're looking for a serial killer-"

Her concentration just slightly lessened from trying to talk and defend herself simultaneously - she slipped, and Kritel hit her in the side with a rock. And then another. And another. And another.

Meanwhile, Mel was busy zooming around. She had to find an opening, quick. The trajectories of the objects seemed to be following a complex pattern. She ended up zipping between the same three spots. Kritel was obviously herding her in, but there wasn't enough time to think of a way out of it - Nomori was being beaten down! So she pre-emptively extended her arm, stopped in one of the spots to loose a bolt of lightning, and as she did so, she got hit in the head by a rock from above, which hadn't been in the pattern. The whole thing was a trick, and Mel fell for it. She grunted and fell to the ground as Kritel screamed from the electricity, and dropped all of her stuff.

Kritel groaned, and said, "Alright, you two. Time to finally take you in." She lifted Nomori with her telekinesis, but dropped her as something disrupted her power and lifted _her_ off the ground."Ghh - what!?"

A distorted voice boomed in everyone's minds. Mel recognized it from before, and went wide-eyed. "Ah, Kritel. I can't have you getting in my way like this. They're _mine_. I thought Melkash would have easily defeated you, but it seems like you're stronger than I thought. Well, I don't exactly regret having to step in personally. Goodbye, Kritel."

And then Kritel screamed, and her pink eyes rolled back into her head. A moment later, she was let go, and fell to the ground. Her hair and back were bloody. There was a _hole bored into her skull_.

Mel said, "Dear Hale, no, no, no, no no nononononono..." Her eyes filled with tears. Kese and Nomori just looked on in horror, saying nothing.

The voice said, "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but it seems this whole debacle has kept you here long enough for other would-be bringers of justice to arrive. I'd rather not reveal my presence to the general public so brazenly as would be to kill all of you here and now. Besides. I'm not done with you yet. So long, for now. I'll be seeing you..."

Mel looked back and saw a few other people running towards the scene. With the light from the portal station ruining her night vision, and her eyes full of tears, she couldn't make them out all that well - but they were there, and closing. She grabbed Nomori and Kese's hands and pulled them up and along, into the intersection and around the street corner from their pursuers.

Kese pulled her hand out of Mel's. Mel stopped and looked back at her.

"Kese? What? C'mon! We need to go!"

"You two go on. I'll distract them!"

"Woah, woah, Kese, you don't need-"

"I have to do _something_! I have to actually help instead of just being pulled along and being scared and useless! I can't stand it!"

Mel reached her hand out, "Kese..."

"Just go! Nobody's trying to arrest me. Valnar's my home. I'll be fine." Then she ran into a nearby alley.

"Kese, I can't lose- AUGH!" Nomori started pulling Mel along, now. "Nomori! What the fuck!"

"If she says she's got this, she's got this! Can't you trust your own fucking girlfriend, Mel!? Dragons, your flip-flopping is pissing me off! Let's get the fuck out of this shit already!"

Mel looked down and muttered, "Everything is pissing you off..."

"You think I don't know that!?"

\---

Meanwhile, Kese flew out of the alley and situated herself in another alley, behind the pursuers. She cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted, "Hey!!" But it wasn't her voice which boomed across the street. It was Nomori's. Sound is merely pressure waves in the air, and so, it was in a wind maja's purview to control. She continued on in Nomori's voice, "Over here, you, uh - fuckwads! Dipshits! Assholes! You heard the news! I'm gonna beat you up!"

One of the pursuers yelled, "She's over there! Get her!" They all took the bait and turned around.

Kese ran further into the alley, giggling. It was less an expression of amusement as it was an involuntary physiological reaction to the adrenaline rush of fear. Part of her immediately regretted doing this. But she also just bought her girlfriends some time, and that made her feel - pleased? Maybe more.. self-satisfied. She smiled, and hid behind some bushes.

\---

Nomori and Mel ran down the sidewalk, passing by the squat, broad buildings of the college. It was closed for the night, so they had no need to go there yet.

Nomori said, "Hey, Mel. You know what I want?"

"Huh?"

"I wanna go home."

Mel stopped, and then picked up again at a walk. Nomori stopped, turned to face her, and waited for her to catch up before continuing on with her. Mel said, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"No, it's probably a horrible idea! But - fucking shit dragons! It's only been, what. Two and a half days? And I already miss my fucking family! I wanna see my sister! And my moms! And my ren!"

Mel took Nomori's hand again. "I'll go with you. If it'll help you feel better while we get through this, let's do it."

"It's just - fuck! What if my own family sells me out!? I don't know how they're gonna react to me!"

"Well, if they do, you've got me and Kese."

"Yeah."

\---

Kese was hiding in someone's garden, behind a tree. She'd yelled out more insults in Nomori's voice, and the pursuers were after her. She started flying away, but then a vine caught her leg and yanked her back. She landed on the ground in front of a short plant woman with a pixie cut, a tall water man with glasses, and someone in a big hoodie. A fire maja? Kese thought she saw a bit of red hair.

The plant woman said, "Huh? You're not Anzakam. Or Kersath. The fuck you think you're doing, punk?"

Kese said, "Wh-what do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean! You were feigning her voice, weren't you?"

Kese got up, "Whose voice?"

"Nomori Anzakam's!"

"I-I don't knoooow who you're talking about?"

"Don't lie to me you little chump! She's all over the news!"

"Ummmm..."

The water man's phone rang, the ringtone was some acoustic guitar. He answered it. "Zam. Yeah? What?" He fiddled with the phone a bit, and then the voice of the person on the other side of the call was audible to everyone.

They said, "Oh, Hale. Shit. Fuck. I-it's Sergnaran. You know, physics? Fuck. She's - she's dead."

The fire maja spoke, "Killed her own teacher..."

"Uhhh, honestly, I don't think either of them could have done this. She's got - a fucking hole in her skull. Bored clean through. What the fuck even happened?"

Kese winced at the description. She did not want to be reminded.

The plant woman said, "You were there - you were that third person, weren't you? Maybe you did it!"

Kese said, "NO! I-I can barely fight - how could I - I would never - They would never -"

"They? You mean Anzakam and Kersath, right? I mean, they clearly would, what with Turani and Anthalai."

"NO! NO NO NO NO! IT WAS A PSYCHIC! IT WAS A-" Suddenly, Kese's throat caught. She couldn't speak. Breathing was difficult.

In her head, she heard, _Time to fly away, little bird._ And then she shot off towards the air. The plant woman grabbed her with a vine again. She and the psychic played tug of war with Kese. The woman's friends helped her pull, but the psychic was too strong. Kese was ripped out of the vine and yanked away into the sky.

The plant woman said, "How'd she get away this time? I easily had her before!"

The water man said, "There was no wind. I think we should get out of here. We have classes tomorrow."

Kese was held high in the sky. She could see the whole suburb below. The bridge was a lot closer than she would have liked. Honestly, she'd never flown particularly high. The proximity of the bridge put her in more of a stark blue glow than on the ground. _Well, well, well. It's just us up here. You're alone. You can't say a word. Let's ruminate on that, shall we?_ Kese started silently crying, They got her. She was sure she'd never see anyone again, now. _Anyone? Well. Maybe. I might let you see my face just before the end. I'm all you have, now. Now, and until you die. Which will be... I'm not sure, actually. It'll depend how much fun you make this, how long I keep you alive._

Suddenly, Kese was on the street. Nomori and Mel were on the other side of it. Kese tried to cry out to them, but to no avail. A psychic girl was there, too. Long hair, fancy dress - was that that Turani girl that this creep made Mel hurt? _Yes._ Mel pushed her down to the ground, and started shocking her. She screamed. Kese struggled against the telekinesis. This was wrong! Mel would never do this! What was going on? Was this some kind of trick? Kese desperately wanted this to stop. _But this is what they are, deep down. They're like me. They thrive on the pain of others. Why else would they have dragged you through all this?_   Nomori started whipping Shira with her vines. _Especially that one. I can't wait to see what I can do with her. Maybe I can get her to kill her own sister. That would be quite the sight. Your corpse should help get her in the right state of mind for that. Though I suppose I'll have to do something about that pesky electric. Can't have her ruining my fun. Hm. Maybe I'll use you to do that, instead._ All Kese could do was cry. _Really? Is that it? Is that all you can muster? Come on, now. Put a little heart into it._ She stopped crying. She forced herself to stop crying. This was just an illusion. _Oh? Now what's this?_ Kese closed her eyes. That didn't help. She could still see it. But, having calmed herself, there was something she could do. Maybe she couldn't control her limbs, or her vision, but she could still control the air. It took all of her inconsiderable power, but she was able to made a loud, simple tone. She kept at it until she completely drained herself. _The death throes of a pathetic-_

Kese screamed in pain as she was shocked, but that did the trick. She could see the bridge again. And she fell. She couldn't fly anymore. But someone caught her in their hands.

"Woah, hey! You alright?" It was an electric woman in pajamas. She was being carried by a large wind man, also in pajamas.

Kese said, "Well, uh, no. Uh, did you see anyone else around?"

"No, but that was obviously a psychic holding you up here. Probably teleported away. Where do you live?"

Kese gave her the address of her family's home, and the man flew them in that direction.

\---

Nomori and Mel walked down a residential street, and stopped in front of one of the houses. In front of this two-story house, the garden was more lush than those of nearby houses, though not at all organized. It was all local, wild plants - an oak on either side, tall grasses below, purple and pink wildflowers interspersed. Some vines grew on the oaks. They sported indigo flowers. The stones forming the path from the sidewalk to the door were barely visible beneath it all. But Nomori and Mel walked them without even looking. This was Nomori's home, and practically a second home to Mel. When they got to the door, they just stood there for a moment. Nomori grit her teeth and took a deep breath, held it for several seconds, then audibly let it out. Then she opened the door. There was the living room, to the right. The only light was from the big holo-screen. Someone was on the couch, playing a racing video game. She paused the game and turned to look at who just opened the door. She had a golden undercut - a light maja - and sported various piercings. She went wide-eyed, vaulted over the couch, and looked at Nomori and Mel. Her clothing was, in a word, denim. She was slightly shorter than Mel. Nomori, on the other hand was, again, absolutely ragged. Her sundress had torn further, and she had cuts, scrapes, and bruises all over.

Mel waved slightly and said, "Hey, Tooch."

Tuchrazi said, "Nomori, what the _fuck_."

Nomori said, "What the fuck, what??"

Tuchrazi looked around and gestured her hands in circles, "What the fuck happened to you? What the fuck do you have to say for yourself? What the fuck is wrong with you? What the fuck??"

Nomori listed off her answers with her fingers, "I got into lots of fights, there's a psychic serial killer fucking with us, and fuck you, I'm angry at everything! That good enough for you!?"

Tuchrazi took a moment to take that all in. Then she said, "Psychic," went wide-eyed, "Like with... Oh, Hale. Hale, Hale, Hale. Are you serious?"

Mel said, "Yeah. They're toying with us before they finish the job. Particularly with me..." She winced.

Tuchrazi grimaced and looked away, "Hale, I'm so sorry. So, you didn't do it, then?"

Nomori said, "No. We did do it."

Tuchrazi shook, "I can't believe this. They - they made you two hurt people?"

Nomori and Mel nodded.

Tuchrazi gulped, and all was silent for a moment. Then she said, "Want me to wake up our parents?"

Nomori said, "No."

Mel said, "We're gonna leave early, be at college by the time it opens."

Tuchrazi said, "College? What? Why would you go back there?"

Mel said, "The killer either works at or attends Kisamora. That's all we know at this point. So we gotta go back there if we're gonna figure this out."

Tuchrazi nodded and looked away before saying, "Have you two eaten anything?"

With how much trouble they were in, none of them had really thought about eating, but now that they'd been reminded about it, Nomori and Mel both reeled back as if they were punched in the gut.

"I'm gonna take that as a no. Cooking'll wake everyone up, so I'll just order some food."

Nomori said, "Eurgh, thanks. Fuckin, stupid hunger!"

Tuchrazi sat back on the couch to order the food with her phone.

Nomori and Mel stepped further inside, Mel closed the door, and then the two of them turned the corner to their left and went in the first door in the hall, on the left, and flopped onto the bed. Nomori's room was small, but not cramped. It was just small enough to be cozy. Her large bed, on the right, took up maybe half the floorspace, but that was alright, as she had no dresser visible. It was in her large closet, on the left. At the other end of her room was the window which looked out to the garden and the street, but the blinds were closed. In front of the window was a desk which sported a computer tower, keyboard, and the perpendicular holo-display. It was still on. She hadn't turned it off, and it seems none of her family did, either. It provided the room with a bit of light. There was no chair at the desk, but her bed extended right up to it.

There were three pictures on the wall above her bed, all of herself and Mel. One was only several days after they'd first met. They were children. Mel's style had basically never changed - she was in a t shirt and jeans. Though, her hair was longer and more even. Nomori, on the other hand, had short hair, and had on overalls and a t shirt. The two of them were around the same height. Written in green, in the shaky hand of a child, was 'Melkash and ~~Konzar~~ '. Beside the crossed out name was 'Nomori', written in a neater hand. In the next picture, they were in their last viru of elementary school. Mel had shorts and pigtails. Nomori's hair was down to her shoulders, and she had on a t shirt and skirt. Mel was a bit taller than Nomori. The last picture was them in the middle of high school. Mel looked like a slightly less adult version of her present self. Nomori towered over her in a black dress, too much eyeliner, and her hair at its present length.

After looking at their paths through life, Mel said, "So. What now?"

Nomori sat up and looked at her computer. She considered messaging Kese. But she wasn't sure if that'd get her pinged. She decided against it. She just wanted a break. With the light of the holo-display on her, she noticed her ragged dress again. She got up and took it off, and threw it on the floor. She stood there in her bra and panties, and the extent of her cuts and bruises were more apparent. She looked like a bolkash - a large, tusked quadruped with a mottled, dark green hide - had run over her.

Mel blushed and said, "Woah, you're just gonna take off your dress in front of me?"

"Mel, I've wanted to take off my fucking clothes in front of you since early high school."

Mel chuckled, got up, and hugged Nomori from behind. "Look at you... I'll go get the bandages and stuff-"

Tuchrazi opened the door, "Okay, food's on its-" She looked at them, wide-eyed. "Oh. Uh. Wow. It took _this_ to get you dorks to finally get together?"

Nomori said, "No! It didn't take being fucking hunted by someone who wants to brutally murder us! It took our other girlfriend, Kese!"

Tuchrazi had a big, open smile, "You have _two_ girlfriends! Aaah, my baby sister is finally movin' up in life! Oh, I should be including ice cream in the food order, shouldn't I?" It was a common practice to take your friend out for ice cream to celebrate their first time getting laid.

Nomori blushed and looked away, "No. We haven't- not yet-"

"Ah. Yeah, I guess this is kind of not the right time, huh? Well, you know what, I'll get us some ice cream anyways. You two could probably use it." Then she left Nomori's room, fiddling with her phone again.

"Well," said Mel, "I'll go get those bandages." She got them out of the bathroom, along with rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs. Then she set to work cleaning Nomori's wounds and bandaging them with the sticky bandages. She was done with it an hour later, at which point, the hot food had arrived. Nomori quickly opened her closet, and threw on her old black dress. Then her and Mel went out to eat their beef noodles with her sister.

***


	9. 18N-03-10031

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 18N-03-10031.

Morning light shone through the thin living room blinds, giving the place a slight golden tinge. Nomori, Mel, and Tuchrazi sat on the main couch. On the other couch were three middle-aged people - Nomori and Tuchrazi's parents. One of their moms, Ikina, was a tall plant maja like Nomori, though her hair was shorter than her daughter's, and she wore only striped pajama pants. She looked worried. Their other mom, Tonsai, was a metal maja with long hair, in a nightgown. She looked off at nothing. And their ren, Hathasi, was an electric wrapped up in a blanket, who looked liable to fall back asleep any moment now. Tuchrazi looked down and away from everyone.  Mel looked at the table, but kept stealing glances at Nomori. Nomori had her arms crossed, and looked at the ceiling. Everyone sat like this, for several moments, with the slight buzz of various electronics, several birdcalls, and the whoosh of a couple of cars hovering past. Any other smell there might have been was overpowered by the coffee brewing in the kitchen.

Ikina finally spoke, "Well, Nomori?"

"I'm back!" said Nomori.

"Wh-"

"It's me! Nomori Anzakam! I'm back! Everything else was a lie! Now if you'll excuse me, Mel and I need to head to school to track down the fucking _serial killer_ who's been fucking around with us!"

Nomori got up, but Ikina grabbed her arm, "Serial killer? What are you talking about?"

"You know, the sick fuck who killed Mel's brother? Yeah, that one! They've been messing with our heads!"

"Even so - street fighting? attempted murder? - how did you fall so far into violence?"

Nomori yanked her arm out of her mom's hand and said, "Maybe if any of you actually did something about all the other kids back in high school, I wouldn't be like this! But no, you just sat there and - I don't even know! What the fuck were you even thinking!?"

Ikina looked away.

Tonsai looked at Ikina and said, "I don't know why you were so adamant about not letting me deal with it."

Ikina swirled to face Tonsai, "I didn't want you pointing blades at children!"

"It was about as much as they deserved, tormenting our daughter like that."

Hathasi yawned, "Then we would've had to deal with complaining parents..."

Tonsai pointed a finger in Hathasi's face, "If they had a problem with me setting things straight, they could've settled it with me in the arena, like real maja! It would've served them right, me kicking all their asses."

Ikina said, "We can't just solve everything with more violence!"

"Sometimes you gotta scream real loud to get anyone's attention. And babe, nothing screams louder than a punch to the gut. Once the dust settled, and everyone was paying attention, then we could have talked things out. Made our demands known. But you didn't let me make that happen. You made the wrong decision." She made a sweeping gesture towards Nomori. "Now look who's paying for it." She paused before adding, "Nomori, I guess it doesn't mean much now, but I'm sorry. I should've acted, regardless of what anyone said. I should've protected you."

Nomori looked away.

Ikina said, "But-"

Tonsai said, "It's not like you did anything! You never had any better idea!"

Ikina's eyes welled up. "I-I was scared."

Nomori looked back at her mothers. "Oh, _you_ were scared!?"

"Yes. You think I don't know what it's like? I was scared they would all start laughing at me again - at us!"

"What about _me,_ mom!? They laughed at _me_! And you did nothing! You're as bad as them! You actually _are_ a pushover!"

Ikina cried.

Nomori said, "What would Grandma Anzakam say about this? Probably nothing good. Hey! Why don't I message her right now!" Nomori went into her room and over to her computer, kneeling on her bed. She brought up her grandmother's system profile and clicked the button to message her. She narrated what she was typing, "Hey Grandma! Guess what! Your daughter is a neglectful shit of a parent! And honestly, your granddaughter is worse! Just a testament to how badly your daughter did! Haha!"

Ikina bawled her eyes out and ran upstairs.

Nomori clicked cancel on the message.

Tonsai said, "You're not even gonna send it?"

Nomori said, "Do we really need to make this shitstorm any bigger? Honestly, if mom really went through the same shit at school, is Grandma even worth talking to? Sounds like she didn't do shit either!"

"No, no, she tried. Got stonewalled by some vindictive water asshole. You should probably talk to her. At least when this is all done. Hale, I should've talked to her, back when. She definitely would've taken my side."

Hathasi came out of the kitchen with two mugs of coffee. "I'm gonna go comfort Ikina now."

"Sure. Fine. I'll... Hey, Nomori."

Hathasi made her way upstairs, and Nomori said, "What."

"If you want some extra blades, I'll come along and help out with this whole thing."

Nomori just walked out of her room, and past her mother. "No."

"Well, I guess I can't blame you for that."

"You know what, Mel? Coming here was a horrible idea."

Mel said, "Uh, yeah, sounds like..."

Nomori went outside, into the morning sun.

Mel said, "Well, uh, see ya, everyone. Thanks for the food, Tooch." Then she followed her girlfriend. Once back in the front garden, she said, "You wanna go right to Kisamora, or is there anything else you wanna do first?"

Nomori said, "You should message Kese."

"What if someone's tracking my phone?"

"I don't fucking care! We're getting this done today, yeah?"

"Yeah." Mel took out her phone, turned it on, and shot Kese a quick message telling her to meet them at Kisamora, then she turned her phone back off. The two of them went as quickly as they could, at least without Mel's electric speed. Nomori was just too big for Mel to carry. As they power walked through the residential part of Valnar, they got a few dirty looks from other people walking down the street, or in their gardens. Nobody raised a hand, though. It probably helped that Nomori was making sure to stand as tall as she could, had her hair all behind her, and walked with her shoulders up and broad, rather than trying to bring attention away from them, or hide them with her hair. It took them about 20 minutes to get to the Kisamora campus. Kese met them on the street lined with plants - trees, bushes, flowers - that led to the eastern stairs onto campus. She told them what happened to her last night.

Nomori yelled wordlessly and whipped a large gash into a tree. Then she said, "That fucker!"

Kese held Nomori's hand and said, "We're going to get them today, right?"

Nomori breathed deeply and retracted her vine. "Yeah."

As they all walked up the steps, Kese said, "So, you're wearing black now?"

"Oh. Yeah. This thing still fits me."

Halfway from the steps to the door a brown-haired rock man - Mel's music instructor - blocked their way. He said, "You actually had the gall to show your faces back here? In broad daylight? And nobody's taken you down? Looks like I'll have to -" He stood there for a moment, shook his head, and blinked a few times. "What was I..? What's going on? Oh! Hello, Mel. How's that song going?"

Mel furrowed her brow and opened her mouth. A moment later she spoke, "Jakon? What just happened?"

"I'm - not sure. I was just in my office. Now I'm here. Um. I need to go sit down." Then he walked off.

Under her breath, Mel said, "Why don't you just show yourself, you coward?"

Kese said, "Was - was that..?"

Nomori said, "Yeah. They don't want anyone arresting us, remember? But they've revealed their presence on campus, now. So be careful."

Nomori walked inside the concourse first. There was a whole crowd in there, and they stared at her.

"Um." She backed up to the glass doors and tried to open them, but found that they was locked. She turned around to look outside through them. Mel and Kese were nowhere to be found. Where did they go? She turned back to the crowd, and they were closer now.

"Murderer!" "Violent thug!" "Forest barbarian!" The crowd pelted her with such words and more. "You're not fit to live among normal people!" "You'll hurt everyone!" "You need to be locked up!" "Save everyone the trouble and just kill yourself!"

Nomori smashed the glass with some vines and ran outside and around to a side entrance. She looked back through the door and saw some of the crowd chasing after her. She ran down the halls. After a few minutes, she looked around the corner she came from and didn't see anyone.

But then she heard someone say, "Nomori?"

She looked over to where the voice came from. It was him. The one who instigated her virui of torment at school - a few virui older, yes, but it was him. She screamed and had her vines around him, around his neck. She wasn't gonna falter, this time. But the vine around his neck was met with resistance. Did he generate stone around his neck? She couldn't see. It was no matter. She would be able to crack through the stone with some roots, and - she couldn't? Why couldn't she break through his defense? He couldn't be _that_ powerful, could he? No, she realized that it wasn't stone at all. It was too smooth. It was - metal?

Suddenly, a shock scrambled her vision - no, no, it was restoring it! Mel held her back now, and she realized that this man wasn't her high school enemy at all. Dark skin, long, light gray hair, dark gray suit - it was her fellow trans club council member, Kalzan Chortale. He took her momentary lapse in concentration to turn his arms into blades and cut himself out of her vines. She cried out in pain, and retracted the vines. Her hands started to bleed a bit. He pointed one of his blades at her.

"Nomori, I'm going to give you one chance to explain yourself before I run you through."

Nomori shook, and  said, "I thought you were him I thought you were him I thought you were him I thought -"

Kalzan sighed, "Mel, what's she going on about?"

Mel said, "There's a powerful psychic serial killer after us! They must be nearby, if they could fuck with Nomori's head like that."

"You mean like with your -" Kalzan's eyes widened, and he dropped his blade, "Oh, Hale. I heard you were complaining about psychic interference before the.. _incident_ with Shira. Is that what happened?"

"Yeah."

He looked down, "I knew that wasn't like you, Mel. I knew something had to be wrong..."

Mel smiled, "Thanks for trusting me, Kal."

He smiled back and nodded. Then he grit his teeth and turned his head away. A moment later, he said,  "You know, Andra was asking after you. Wanted to ask you something. Wouldn't say what."

Mel and Nomori looked at eachother. Mel said, "It's - it's not her, is it? She's not - she's always on drugs, or whatever. Wouldn't hurt a fly!"

Nomori said, "Fuck. Shit! She _is_ a few virui older than us. She woulda been in high school when you and Kese witnessed those murders. And she doesn't take drugs. She screws with her own head, with her powers. She's apparently real good at it."

"A high school student, a murderer?"

Nomori looked away from everyone, narrowed her eyes, and balled her hands into tight fists, "Wasn't I, almost?"

Mel was silent.

Nomori looked back at Mel and said, "Well!? Wasn't I!?"

Mel looked away from Nomori. Her eyes had the slight shine of tears.

"And now I am again, with Kozoma!"

"Nomori, please -"

"What I'm saying is that none of the psychics we know are above suspicion! And none of the ones we don't know, either! Any psychic who attends or works at Kisamora College is under my suspicion!"

"What, even Shira!?"

"YES! EVEN SHIRA! SHE COULD HAVE ENGINEERED THAT SITUATION TO MAKE HERSELF LOOK THE VICTIM AS SHE PICKED US OFF!"

"A-are you so sure she could have done that?"

"ARE YOU SURE SHE COULDN'T!?"

Kalzan raised a blade up to Nomori again, "Nomori, I'm going to have to ask you to stop yelling, this instant. You're making Mel cry."

Nomori's right eye twitched, she grit her teeth, and looked between Kalzan and Mel. Then she screamed and stomped away. Kese went after her. Kalzan lowered his blade and turned his arms back to normal, "Well, that's one way to do it, I suppose." He sighed, "I've never seen her like this before. Do you know what's up with her, Mel?"

"This is how she used to be. Back in high school, and for a bit afterwards. I - I thought she'd dealt with it, but it seems like all she did was sweep it under the rug. Oh, Hale, she's kept all that pain with her all this time!"

"Pain?"

"Ever since I met her, back when we were kids, everyone else pushed her around because she's a plant maja. You know, all the stereotypes of them being pushovers. I was the only one who stood up for her. When she finally stood up for herself, well, look what she did to you."

Kalzan rubbed his neck, "Yeah. That's rough. She hasn't sought help for it?"

"She thought she could handle it all on her own."

"That's never the right answer, _Melkash_."

Mel was silent again.

"When this is all done, you need to get help, too."

"Wh-what do you know!?"

"I know what Kozoma did. And I can surmise what the killer did to freak you out before. You're both hurt. You both need help. Go get it, together."

Mel sighed. "Well, I should go make sure those two don't get caught in anymore bullshit."

Kalzan narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. Then he went wide-eyed and pointed a blade at Mel.

"Wh- Kalzan?"

"Jairash. What are _you_ doing here?"

Mel grabbed the blade with two fingers and sent a shock through it. Kalzan yelped and looked around, confused. "What the - what?? Was that the..."

"Yeah. You should get away from us until we've dealt with them. I don't want you getting hurt - or being driven to hurt us."

He grimaced and looked away. "Yeah. Alright." Then he turned the blade back into his hand, slipped it out of Mel's fingers, and ran away from Mel. He turned the corner, ran down that hall, and turned another corner to his left at an intersection. He saw the Nanomechanics instructor, Zanfar Osurkalnas, with his sweater vest and pink, slicked back hair. Kalzan said, "Oh, hey, there's a killer on the loose! Be careful!"

Zanfar's eyes widened. "Really? Do you mean those delinquents Kersath and Anzakam? To think, one of my own students..."

"No, no, it's someone else. I don't know who. But they're psychic."

"Well, I'll be sure to watch out!"

Kalzan continued on past him but stopped shortly after, then turned his left arm into a blade, turned around, and thrust it at Zanfar. But he froze mid-thrust, and struggled.

Zanfar said, "Do remember that I can read your mind, Chortale. You don't mean to say that you think this killer is _me_ , do you?" He turned his head to look at Kalzan, and sighed.

\---

Mel caught up with Nomori and Kese."Hey, you two!"

Nomori said, "What do you want, Mel!?"

"C'mon, we should go see Andra!"

"And what if she's the killer, and is luring us into a trap, huh!?"

"Then we'll know it's a trap going in and be prepared! Look, either this'll be it, or it'll be harmless. Either way, I think it's our best shot right now. It's the only lead we have."

Nomori breathed in deeply and let it back out with a hiss. "Fine. But the moment I think she's trying something funny, I'm ending her."

Mel nodded. "Kese? Could you message her, please?"

Kese nodded and got out her phone. She didn't know Andra personally, but she could look her up. "What's her full name?"

"Irshan. Andra Irshan."

Kese messaged her.

 

                KESE SHINTALOR

                um hello

                im kese

                mel and nomori's gf

                we were told you wanted to talk to us?

 

                ANDRA IRSHAN

                oh, yeah! hi babe, nice to meet you

                their gf? so wait, are they together, too??

 

                KESE SHINTALOR

                yeah

 

                ANDRA IRSHAN

                :D :D :D

                hale, that's great news!

                but uh, yeah, i have some uh, not so great news. meet me in room 328. shouldn't be any class in there rn

 

                KESE SHINTALOR

                ok

 

The three of them made their way upstairs and across the building to room 328 unaccosted, though one person did see them from the other end of a hall and ran. They were lucky that the vast majority of people currently on campus were in classrooms at the moment. As Andra had said, room 328 had no class currently - the light was off. Mel opened the door and went inside first, followed by Nomori and Kese. Sitting at a couple of desks in the room were Andra and Kozoma. Andra was leaning her chair back, resting her feet on the desk. Her unzipped hoodie hung away from her shirtless body, and the only other clothes she had on were short shorts and sneakers. Her pink bob also hung as she looked up at the ceiling. Kozoma was sitting normally at her desk, she had on a sleveless dress, revealing her hairy arms, and a snapback. She flinched and whimpered when Mel entered the room. Andra immediately lowered herself to a normal sitting position with a clunk as the front chair legs hit the floor, and placed a hand on Kozoma's shoulder. Mel winced and looked away. Nomori stood leaning to one side slightly, and looked at Andra and Kozoma with her head tilted to the other side and slightly up. Kese said, "Um, hi."

Andra said, "What's up, babes?"

Nomori said, "I got my head fucked with after we got on campus. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Andra said, "Nomori, it's not me. However, I repaired Kozoma's memory, found out who gave her that pic of Mel's bro. Probably your main suspect, I'd say. It was-" She ended her sentence with a harsh sound, and then silence. She started flailing, and her eyes rolled back into her head. Mel jumped to her side and gave her a shock. She convulsed for a moment, then wheezed in a deep breath. "Bastard! I'm right, aren't I! Trying to kill me just before I said your name, Osurkalnas!"

Nomori's eyes widened. "What!?"

"You heard me! Mel, I'd like to repair your memory too."

Mel said, "Is that even possible?"

"I can't match his telekinesis, but I think I'm a better telepath! It won't be easy, but yeah, I think I can. But first, we need to get out of here! I can teleport everyone but Mel. Mel, I'll message you where we are. Get out of here before you read it. Don't want him plucking it out of your head."

Kese and Nomori went over to Andra and held on to her. Kozoma also did so. Andra closed her eyes, and then a moment later, all of them were gone. Mel went outside of the empty classroom, and the halls were dark. A laugh reverberated in her mind. She said, "You're not getting me this time, you monster!" As before, the illusion of the abandoned office building was fuzzy and only mostly blocked her vision of the hallways of Kisamora, glimpses repeatedly coming through. This psychic was strong to be able to do this to her at all, but she still held an advantage, even if it was slight. _Your friends abandoned you in here, Melkash!_ She said, "You can't fool me anymore!" She ran through the halls, leaped down the stairs, slammed into walls a few times, nearly fell down some stairs at one point. But she made it to the first floor. She turned a corner and ran through the last hall before one of the side exits of the college building, but as she got close, she saw it move away from her. She shook her head and stepped forward, and was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She was completely frozen. _You have no idea how doomed you truly are, do you? But I do love playing with my toys. I think it's time for the real fun to begin!_

Mel felt a warping, like everything was stretching for a split second, and then she was somewhere else. A dark room. She couldn't see or hear anything. But she could smell blood. That rusty odour practically assaulted her. Then, a light came on. And she saw Kalzan's corpse laying against the wall in front of her. His eyes were missing, and his whole body was mutilated. His blood was all over. She could only scream in her own mind. _Oh Hale, Kalzan, no!_

Zanfar said, "Now, see, if he'd only kept to his own business, he'd be fine. I wasn't after him. But he just had to try and attack me. I suppose that ridiculous stoner told him who she found in the fire girl's head." He sighed. "I should have killed her after her work was done. To be honest, I hoped you'd do it for me. Seems I was mistaken. Speaking of Miss Irshan, though..." He reached into Mel's pocket, took her phone, and turned it on. He checked her messages, and just as she'd said, there was one from Andra. He read it. "You stay here for now, Melkash. Look closely at your dear Kalzan. That's going to be you, soon! But much slower, now that I'm not strapped for time. First, though, I must collect the others. They're going to watch!" He teleported away, and Mel could move again. She fell to her knees and cradled her ex-boyfriend's corpse, then cried.

\---

Andra, Nomori, Kese, and Kozoma all appeared in a living room with several couches and no holo-screen. The blinds were closed, and the ceiling lamp was off, so the lighting was muted. It smelled like cats.

Kese said, "Oh, is this your place, Andra?"

Andra said, "Nah, babe, this is my friends' place. They're on vacation, so I'm keeping an eye on it," two cats - one gray, one orange - came into the living room from the kitchen, meowed, and rubbed against Andra's legs, "and their cats." She kneeled down to pet the cats. "So, I guess while we wait for Mel to get here, we can just chill for a bit."

"Oh, um..."

"Yeah?"

"Well, uh - I have a memory, too. That needs fixing, I mean."

"Oh!" Andra stood back up. "Yeah, I can do that. C'mere." Kese went over to her, and the cats started going back and forth to each of them. Andra placed her hands on Kese's head and closed her eyes. Soom, Kese's eyes closed as well. Everything was silent. Even the cats were sitting and looking at Kese and Andra. Kozoma glanced at Nomori. Nomori glanced back, and Kozoma looked away.

Kozoma said, "Um. I'm sorry. About the thing with Mel."

Nomori said only, "Yeah," and left the room.

\---

Kese and Andra were in a dark space. Not sinister or threatening, just empty. Kese said, "Where are we?"

"Welcome to your own mind! It can be a little disorienting at first, experiencing it from this perspective, so," Andra held Kese's hand, "keep close to me. It's rather like lucid dreaming, if you've ever done that."

"No, I haven't. Um. Why's it all dark in here?"

"Because you're not actively thinking about anything?"

"Oh - I, um. Ok. Uh..." Suddenly, their surroundings changed to a forest with various glowing lights around.

Andra laughed and said, "Sirtha Online, huh?"

Kese made an axe appear in her hand and went over and chopped a tree, "Hey, look! It's like I'm playing the game!"

"Okay, okay, looks like you've got the hang of it, babe. A lot more quickly than most, I gotta say. You daydream a lot, dontcha?"

Kese chuckled, "Yeah..."

"Alright, well, can you think about the memory you want fixed?"

Kese nodded, and their surroundings changed again. They were watching Kese's memory of the murder in the alleyway play out.

Andra said, "Okay, pause it here."

Kese paused the memory when she was looking at the killer. The image of them was extremely fuzzy. The only thing to be made out was pink hair. Andra walked over, still holding Kese's hand, and seemed to touch the image. She waved her hand over it, as if she was cleaning it. And slowly, the image resolved. It was him. He was younger, and under the shadow of the buildings, but it was him. Zanfar. He looked surprised. Kese dismissed the memory, and suddenly they were on a plateau. The wind picked up around them, soon becoming a tornado that they were in the eye of. Andra held Kese's hand tighter. She said, "Yeah."

\---

Nomori was standing out in the front garden. It was much more neatly kept than the one at her house. The flowers were arranged into a rainbow spiral. The spiral was a symbol of love in many maja cultures. Specifically a rainbow one signified love and compassion between all types of maja.

Nomori scoffed and said, "Like that's ever gonna be a thing."

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she was gone before she could look to see who was there.

\---

Kozoma watched Andra and Kese standing there, eyes closed, not moving. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and disappeared halfway through her scream.

A moment later, Kese and Andra woke up.

Andra said, "Huh. Where'd Nomori and Kozoma go?"

"Um. Maybe elsewhere in the house?"

Andra closed her eyes and concentrated, "I don't feel their minds nearby. Shit! Wait, I feel someo-" She was suddenly telekinetically lifted and held in place. Behind her was Zanfar. Kese screamed and backed away. Andra struggled against his telekinesis, but before she could get anywhere with that, he brought her hands behind her back and cuffed them. When he closed the cuffs, an LED on them lit up. Nullifier cuffs - normally used in the capturing of particularly dangerous and violent people, to make them unable to use their powers. Andra slumped, then Zanfar put his hand on her and teleported away with her.

Kese ran. Before she even got to the front door, Zanfar teleported in front of her and held her with his telekinesis. He said, "Did you really think you could get away from me again? You got lucky those first two times. Not anymore." Then he teleported away with her. She felt that stretching again, and she was in a concrete room with Nomori and Kozoma.

Nomori screamed and lashed out at Zanfar with a vine, but he teleported before it hit. He appeared in the next room over, which there was a window to. Also in there were Mel and Andra. Mel was still cradling Kalzan's corpse. Andra was kneeling in the corner, hands cuffed, head down. Zanfar telekinetically lifted Mel and turned her to face him. He said, "Well, now! Everyone's here! Time to begin today's entertainment!" He lifted  a gloved hand, and a swarm appeared beside it - Class D Nanomachines. He directed the swarm just as easily as he would direct his own telekinesis. He brought them to Mel, and had them crawl all over her. It was like being covered in bugs. But she didn't make a sound, only grimacing. Nomori bashed on the window with her vines. All Mel could hear was a series of thumps. The thing was made of fiberglass. She struggled against the telekinesis. She tried to get even a bit of electricity to flow through her body, to crack his hold over her. The nanomachines started to scratch her. Any one of them would have been nothing. But altogether, it was agony. He had them do it slowly, and she screamed.

Andra stood up, and walked behind Zanfar. He was so focused on the wailing Mel that he didn't even notice her. She opened her mouth - and bit him on the shoulder. He yelped in surprise and pain. The nanomachines fell off of Mel, now that Zanfar wasn't concentrating on them. Andra turned around, showing the nullifer cuffs to Mel, and grit her teeth. Mel shocked them enough to break them, though she also shocked Andra in the process, who grunted in pain. But now, Andra was free. She pulled on the fiberglass with her telekinesis, and kept pulling even as Zanfar lifted both her and Mel up.

He said, "An electric and a psychic - so troublesome! I guess I'll have to kill you quickly, now." Just after he finished saying that, Nomori was finally able to smash the fiberglass with her vines, thanks to the extra strain Andra placed on it. Then she grabbed Zanfar with them, yanked him towards her, and turned him around to face her. She started choking him.

Kozoma said, "Wh-what are you doing, Nomori!?"

Kese said, "Shouldn't we be arresting him? Not killing him? He needs to be put on trial!"

Mel said, "Don't do this! Don't be like him!"

Andra said, "Are you gonna be a monster, now?"

"Come on! Stop it!" "DON'T DO THIS!" "STOP IT!" "DON'T BE LIKE HIM!" "NOMORI, NO!" "STOP IT, STOP IT!"

Nomori looked around at everyone shouting for her to stop, and started shaking. Her vines started receding. Then she heard Andra's voice in her mind, _Nomori, what are you doing!? Don't let him -_

Given just enough freedom, Zanfar flicked his wrists and sent Andra and Mel careening into the walls. Nomori was confused just long enough for him to yank Kozoma's arms towards her and force fire out of them. Kozoma yelped, and Nomori screamed and ducked, completely letting go of Zanfar. Her hair and the back of her dress got a bit singed. Kese backed up into a corner, whimpering.

Nomori shouted, "Sorry, Kozoma!" Then she got a vine around Kozoma, turned her to face away, and pushed her away. Then she whipped another vine towards Zanfar. He grabbed the unconscious Mel and Andra and slammed them together in front of him. Nomori pulled her vine back at the last second before hitting them with it, but ended up whipping herself in the face. She said, "Fuck!"

They all stood like this for a moment, at an impasse. Then Zanfar opened the gates, as it were, and the swarm of nanomachines blasted out at Nomori. It surrounded her head and cut her. She screamed. Kese summoned all of her might, and blew the nanomachines  maybe a meter away. Kozoma, now free, took this opportunity to blow fire at them. Zanfar shouted, "NO!" The nanoswarm landed on the floor with a splat, half melted and all mangled. Zanfar continued, "DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT COST ME TO GET THOSE!? THEY'RE EXPERIMENTAL!"

Kozoma said, "Well maybe you shoulda thought of that before using them to kill people! Fucking bastard!" Zanfar threw Mel and Andra through the broken window, and then slammed into Kozoma and brought her to the floor. Nomori, on the other hand, was already sitting against the wall below the window. While Kozoma struggled to worm her way from under the unconscious girls, Nomori had vines snaking up the wall. Kese yelped. Nomori saw her get pulled through the window. She grit her teeth and stayed put. She snaked her vines all around the window, on her side of it.

Zanfar said, "Not going to show yourself, Anzakam? Then I guess I'll just kill your little girlfriend, here!" Kese screamed as Zanfar tugged at her face, trying to telekinetically pull it apart. He looked towards the window again, looked at all the edges of the window. He could see it in her mind, the image of all the vines suddenly coming from the sides of the window. But he was only skimming her mind, so what he didn't realize was that she was practically shouting that at him, in order to hide her real plan. He pulled at Kese's face again, she screamed some more. Zanfar said, "Come on, Anzakam! Bring out all your little vines, already! Can't you hear how much pain she's in??" He heard a crack. "What -"

The entire wall broke and fell on him. Then Nomori's vines, hundreds of roots snaking from them, followed. Nomori pulled Kese out of the rubble. She was bruised, but still smiled at Nomori, who was standing, now. She put Kese aside and pulled Zanfar out as well. He had a lot of bruises too, and was bleeding in various places, as well. She practically covered him in vines, and choked him again. She heard his voice in her head, _Do it. Kill me. Become the murderer you were always meant to be! From master to apprentice, I pass on the title!_ She said, "Killing you isn't murder. It's putting down a rabid dog."

She snapped his neck. Crunch.

She retracted her vines back into her arms, letting his corpse fall on top of the rubble. She stared at it. Mel groaned behind her, waking up and getting off of Kozoma, then helping her up. Then she gave Andra a little shock to wake her up too. Mel turned around and looked at what Nomori wrought. She walked up beside her, then said, "It's over?"

Nomori said, "Yeah."

Mel slipped her arms around Nomori, and buried her face in Nomori's long, wavy green hair. It smelled like concrete, sweat, and  blood, with just a hint of grass. "Thank you."

***


	10. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Due to the events of the 18th of Nachabado, Third Tafra, viru 10031 KI, Kozoma dropped her charges against Mel and Nomori. They all visited Shira in the hospital. Andra helped her look through everyone's memories. After a lot of crying, she dropped her charges against Mel as well. The manipulator behind it all, and the murderer of Kajan Nunakron, Kritel Sergnaran, Kalzan Chortale, and a currently unknown number of others, was dead. It was time to put the matter to rest. The corpse of Zanfar Osurkalnas was tied to a weight and dropped into the Sundered Ocean, as was traditional to dispose of murderers. Kritel and Kalzan were given proper pyre funerals.

Though their names had been cleared, and nobody was trying to capture them anymore, people still shied away from Mel and Nomori. Gave them a berth on the street. Stared at them suspiciously. Getting back on to the internet, they saw threads of people discussing them, people claiming that even if they weren't ultimately to blame, they were still unstable. "How long before we see them on the news again?" people asked. Nomori couldn't forgive her family for their neglect in her younger years. She moved in with Mel and cut off contact with them. Kese soon moved in with them as well. Nomori kept getting into fights with people who claimed she was dangerous and should leave. Ultimately, though, she did. She and Mel finished the tafra's term at Kisamora and then dropped out. Kese transferred to a school in a distant part of the Empire, and Mel and Nomori followed her there.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! I hope you enjoyed Kandro City Shuffle!


End file.
